Dreaming of Sunshine Switch
by Lady Hallen
Summary: DOS shippuden. ANBU Sasuke and Shikako get sent to investigate disappearances near a cave. Why Tsunade thought putting two of the Lucky Sevens in one team a good thing was a mystery. Naruto canon meets DOS canon. Fanfiction of the fanfiction Dreaming of Sunshine by silver Queen.
1. Intro

Welcome to Dreaming of Sunshine Switch: What Plot?

The idea came from Lady Hallen through the forum We're all Dreaming of Sunshine. This is fanfiction for the fanfiction Dreaming of Sunshine by Silver Queen. This is a collaboration project.

The General idea _is what would happen if Canon characters came in contact with DOS characters_. The general chapters for this fic will only have Shikako and Sasuke arriving at Canon World and Chibi-Sasuke arriving at DOS World.

This means Omakes are accepted. They don't have to exist within the head-canons of the general fic.

If you would like to write something for Switch or have an idea please review or contact Lady Hallen or Fragile Dreams. Switch will be set as chapters centered on characters interacting. The plot is lose (no whining).

Hope you enjoy,

-Lady Hallen & Fragile Dreams

* * *

 **Credits: (Also known as: How it happened)**

Canon meets DOS and inspirations: Recursive fanfiction Forum. Excerpts. Sorry guys. Didn't realize how much this filtered through until I started going through the forum. This is sorted by date.

Yorozuya: "I actually really like DoS meeting Canon"

Juno-nine: "…meeting canon, too. There are a couple of characters that are on their way to being very different from their canon counterparts"

Fell's Apprentice: "if 16 year old Sasuke from Dos meets 16 year old him from canon, his biggest reaction might be horror"

ByeByeBriar: " **Imagining Sasuke getting switched with DoS!Sasuke just after the Chunin Exams** "

13LuckyWishes: "Root! Shikako AU" Flashbang effect. This is where Crossworlds came from.

Donahermurphy: "DoS meeting Root! Shikako"

Toma02: "there is no reason why Shikako couldn't be a canon character that was killed off as a baby" & "I still prefer the idea of canon shikako dying from the nine-tails attack, rather than a still birth"

Lady Hallen then wrote the big fanfiction excerpt that started Switch: What Plot? She posed at the beginning too but then this was the important part. Neh? T

Then Fragile Wishes posted ficlets that continued it.

* * *

 **General Chapter List: (Will be updated regularly)**

1\. Sasuke arriving in the canon world.  
2\. In which everything is classified information (Or Shikako just doesn't want to say anything with Danzo in the room)  
3\. Sasuke has _problems  
5\. _Kakashi has orders (or Shikaku enjoys dropping bombs on her sensei)  
6\. Kakashi and Naruto talk about their guests  
7\. Shikako's method to awesome  
8\. The news finally reached the Border Outpost  
9\. Canon!Sasuke arriving in D.O.S.  
10\. Canon!Shikamaru investigating (or in which he is too curious and finds a sister instead)  
11\. ANBU interrogations are scary  
12\. A moment with Sasuke and Shikako  
13\. A surprise visit for the otherworldly guests.  
14\. Shikamaru finds out where his sister went for vacation  
15\. Canon!Sasuke finally getting out of T & I.  
16\. Canon! Shikamaru talks to Naruto and Team 10 gathers for a group hug  
17\. DOS! Kakashi feels his nightmares coming true.  
18\. DOS! Shikaku gets the news and is just majorly scary.  
19\. Gaara wants to talk to Shikako and Tsunade has a headache.  
20\. Gaara talks to Shikako and Shogi the Fun Way is introduced to the world.  
21\. Canon! Sasuke gets a tour of his alternate self's bedroom and Hound finds the Jounin Commander scary  
22\. DOS! Sasuke has a lot of problems and it usually starts with Shikako.  
23\. Jiraiya proves he's a lot more badass than people usually think and Shikako has a sealing headache.  
24\. Canon! Shikaku does serious angst when he meets the should-have daughter he never got to teach.  
26\. DOS!Yoshino is the last to find out her daughters missing and she explodes accordingly.  
27\. Canon!Sasuke is struggling to change his world view and ROOT takes advantage.  
28\. Canon!Yoshino does some angsty reminiscing.  
29\. Ninjas are masters of the unsaid words and more angst. Serious angst.

 **Omake Chapter List:**

4\. Edo Tensei: In which DOS!Shikamaru and DOS!Sasuke went on their first joint mission as chuunin together, and did not expect to end up in a different Konoha  
25\. Songbird: In which Sasuke and Shikamaru are stuck in a future Konoha. Everything is fine until it's really, really not.

* * *

 **Head canons for the D.O.S. switch with canon**

1\. Shikako and Sasuke are in ANBU  
2\. Team 7 are all sixteen. This is during Shippuden for D.O.S.  
3\. The switch happens during the Sound Four for canon.  
4\. Team 7 are all Jounins.  
5\. Akatsuki fighting has started in little bits for D.O.S. but not that seriously.  
6\. Shikako in the canon world died when the Kyuubi attacked.

More will be added later.


	2. General Chapter 1

**DOS!Sasuke switching places with canon!Sasuke in the fight against the Sound Four:**

* * *

Sasuke jolts to awareness inside a barrel.

If he were the type to have motion sickness, he'd be suffering from it. The barrel is moving and he stomps down on the urge to just explode out. It is uncomfortable and he hates it.

He activates his sharingan, the motion almost like breathing to him and he pauses.

Inked on the wood are seals. Crawling seals that go over and around the barrel, wrapping everything up tight like a ribbon.

He might not have studied the art, but he had a teammate that did. This sealing was passive, not active. That didn't mean, however, that he could just disrupt whatever it was doing.

Yelling outside the barrel makes him stop his examination and pay attention to the outside, ears coating with chakra for better hearing.

There is the sound of a fight ongoing and he itches to _go out_.

What if it were his teammates? The probability isn't actually far-fetched. Naruto, the idiot, would most likely chase after whoever had abducted him. Shikako, he knows, would go after Naruto just so that the blonde wouldn't do something rash.

Contemplation is broken when there is the sound of wood splintering and light filters through the barrel, making Sasuke's hand's grope around for a kunai.

He jumps out and encounters...

There are several fights going on and he feels the flares of chakra. He isn't as sensitive as Shikako, but he can feel it. It feels like Kiba and Shikamaru.

"Go on, Sasuke," a woman yells, looking demonic. "We'll take care of the trash for you. Orochimaru-sama is waiting for you."

Sasuke blinks.

Oh, so it's this bit, except that everyone looks overwhelmed. Where is Shikako? If this is a time-travel thing, then only crippling injuries would stop her. She was self-sacrificing that way, the idiot.

And then Naruto arrives, except he isn't the _right Naruto_.

There are subtle differences but they can so obviously be seen by a Sharingan, and his are spinning and cataloging everything.

"Teme!" he yells. "The hell!?"

This Naruto starts talking. The Talking-to that he gives to villains to change their minds, cowardly clients to give them confidence and the like. And he's giving it to Sasuke.

 _What. The. Hell.?_

"Naruto," he interrupts. "Where is everybody?"

The blonde idiot _gapes._

"Teme," he yells out, voice shocked and so worried. "What did they do to you?"

Before Sasuke can answer _that_ , another nutter comes, except Sasuke recognizes this one. This is Kimimaro, which had taken Naruto and Sasuke's teamwork to explode.

And right, almost killed everybody that had been in the mission because he seeded his bones to erupt when from the ground when he died.

Naruto starts cranking out shadow clones and Sasuke notes the lack of certain moves that _his_ Naruto would have used. This really couldn't be time-travel.

It must be another dimension then. It is a testament to Team 7's kind of missions that he doesn't even discount that theory.

Lee arrives then, green and bulging muscles showing up everywhere.

It's either turn off the automatic memorization tool called Sharingan or turn away and save yourself from mental scarring.

Given that it's a life and death situation, he turned away.

The three of them work together to take Kimimaro down and it is making him feel off-balance. Naruto's moves are a bit different and he doesn't factor in ninja-wire at all, thank the Founder for Kyuubi healing. He learns just as quickly though.

Lee is still Lee.

Both of them work in tandem while Naruto gives support.

It had taken him activation of the cursed seal and a Kyuubi-fied Naruto to kill the bastard the first time around.

This time though, he had the distinct advantage of knowing how he moved. So things are winding down when something explodes.

It's a fairly big explosion and makes everyone stop fighting just to process the sheer amount of exploding tags used to make that range of explosion.

Sasuke laughs.

"Why are you laughing?" Kimimaro demands. "Back-up?"

Sasuke purses his lips, thinking back to the Chuunin Exams and the same column of fire that had erupted. Naruto had told him it was Shikako's doing.

"My teammate, probably," he announces, making Naruto look so confused. "She likes explosions."

As though to punctuate that statement, Shikako drops down and slaps a hand on Kimimaro's back. Ink blossoms under her hand and then she hastily jumps away to prevent the bone spikes from piercing her hands.

When she touches down, he explodes in a column of fire.

"Sasuke!" she exhales his name like a prayer.

"Shikako," he says wryly.

Naruto points at her. "Who are you!?" he hollers.

* * *

 **This is the snippet that started everything.**


	3. General Chapter 2

Hehehe. Tsunade gets to suffer.

-F.G.

* * *

Haywire

"Not possible. I will not disclose classified information"

Shikako had been repeating the same thing every time she was asked a question about what happened in the future. Shikako watched as Tsunade's eyebrow twitched. She didn't for one second believe the woman was not dangerous to her. Shikako had known the Hokage for 3 years now, and 1 of them she had worked as ANBU. This Tsunade knew nothing about her, didn't owe them the protection of Konoha ninjas. The three elders and Sasuke were in the office with them. And she definitely wouldn't open her mouth in front of Danzo.

Danzo in her world had less influence and firepower this one probably had. The other one had been slowly drained of power by Tsunade. Having come in contact with Sai early on had allowed them to dig information on ROOT sooner than here.

"This is ridiculous, girl" The old woman of the council said with a scowl "all we know is that you allegedly had an accident after coming in contact with a Seal. How do we know you are who you say you are? That you don't mean to harm Konoha?"

She had refused to let Inoichi into her head. There was too much in there that could get her a ticket straight to invasive interrogation or possibly the afterlife. She wasn't that eager to find herself dead again. It was too late to pretend to be someone else. Sasuke had said her name during the fight multiple times and it was clear he wasn't this world's Sasuke. Even Naruto had figured it out within seconds. The Konoha 12, the Sand Team, and higher leveled ninja's knew exactly what Sasuke and she was. It was too late to close those floodgates.

"We don't mean to cause anything. We can even leave Konoha if you so wish it. The information I possess could be used dangerously. I need to figure out how to undo _this_ "

Tsunade looked at Sasuke "Orochimaru wants Sasuke. If you leave we would be handing Sasuke to him…And his body belongs to one of our ninja"

Sasuke very carefully didn't twitch. He had remained quiet, letting her handle the situation. Naruto had told them on their way to the village exactly what this world's Sasuke had been planning to do. He would have been in Orochimaru's hideout by now, Shikako knew that. Oh hell. She very quickly shut the door in her thoughts about alternate realities and ignored it completely for later perusal. Tsunade was quickly losing her patience. She needed time to _think_.

"I know someone that I can trust implicitly in any…situation. I will agree to share information with you, and only you, with Jiraya-sama present" He wasn't present in the village. That would give her a few days.

"Girl-"

Tsunade held up a hand to interrupt one of the council members and studied her. Shikako held herself steadily. She'd die rather than let Danzo have the information that she possessed. Danzo was being creepily quiet. That didn't bode well for anyone. Tsunade apparently found what she had been looking for because she nodded in acceptance.

"I will send for Jiraya. You will speak when he gets here, understood?" Shikako nodded seriously, she would have to "For now, you will be given accommodations in the Uchiha district" that was definitely out of the way in case a fight broke out "any suspicious activities will mean a switch in security level" Translation: you ass will be handed to Ibiki and Inoichi. Shikako almost shuddered "understood?"

She bowed to the Hokage in assent. It had taken a while for her to be able to do it without any awkwardness but ANBU had changed that. They were soon escorted to the house by a jounin member of the Aburame clan. She didn't doubt for one second this one was known for being especially good at draining chakra.

The man didn't talk to them before he disappeared into the trees. The four ANBU that had been tailing them chose the best vantage spots and settled down for their watch. Shikako signed inconspicuously to Sasuke to let him know. The house was Spartan, there was no defense to it and it had plenty of windows that had very open views into it… She almost wanted to sight.

"Now what?" Sasuke said out loud and she wanted to just lay down and go to sleep. Yes, indeed. What now?

"Not even one fucking mission, Sasuke. This is ridiculous" Sasuke cracked a smile at that. Their ridiculous curse of their missions going haywire no matter what rank or what intel…but this was just a higher power fucking with them.


	4. General Chapter 3

**Interlude: Sasuke has problems**

 **~Hallen**

* * *

Sasuke stumbles.

It's fairly uncomfortable to be in a younger body. Your movements are tailored to fit a certain height and size, and he had to adjust to it.

Worse, all the katas he just learned got thrown out the window. 'You won't stay that size for long, so train your reflexes and speed instead' he thinks. Thank you _so much_ , Kakashi-sensei.

And to add the frosting on the entire cake, Shikako _kept making jokes_.

He didn't mind jokes but to have them run the course of the entire uncomfortable time they were going to be stuck in this dimension…! She really had been spending too much time with Kiba.

With a very dark scowl, he continues stretching.

He closes his eyes and starts to breathe deep, senses enhancing as he entrenched himself into the exercise.

But…

He opened his eyes very quickly.

"Sasuke?" Shikako asks, having felt his sudden alarm and looking up from her scroll.

He stalks towards her, grumpily ignoring the urge to stomp his foot. It really wouldn't help his image. "My chakra got smaller," he mumbles, throwing himself down beside her. "Damnit."

She chokes. "Your chakra got…" she couldn't manage anything else.

"Shut up," he grouches. "At least I exist in this world."


	5. Chapter 4:Crossworlds-Edo Tensei

Introduction:

Crossworld takes place between DOS, just after the Chunin exams in Grass. The other world is where Shikako died at the age of seven after trying to prevent the sevents of the Uchiha Massacre and getting caught by Danzo.

If you missed it, a new fanfiction got posted on the Forum. Shikako Nara is resurrected with Edo. She returns at age 7. We might have to het the original author of that snippet to post here.

Shikamaru (13) and Sasuke (13) arrive in an alternate Konoha, and speak with Hokage Kakashi and Ino(18)

Shikako (13) gets done trying to locate her brother via crystal ball, and eets the alternate Shikamaru (18) and Sasuke (18)

Shikamaru (18) reflects

After visiting the Nara House and the alternate Shikako (undead! Age 7), Sasuke (13) mulls things over in conversation with Shikamaru (13) and ino (18).

DOS Tsunade reacts to the new information.

\- donahermurphy

* * *

 **Crossworlds - Edo Tensei  
by: ****donahermurphy**

* * *

1.

It took some time for Shikamaru and Sasuke to verify that they were not, in fact, in the future. This was somewhat reassuring. (Sasuke didn't really want to think about the implications of Konoha pretty much consisting of a lot of very new construction inside a giant crater.) And a different dimension did explain why people kept staring at Sasuke's new chunnin vest and then giving him challenging stares. Somewhat.

Yeah, different dimensions were creepy. Sasuke kept getting distracted by inconsequential things, like the fact that his sensei _didn't have the sharingan_ and was also _Hokage_.

He hoped Shikamaru was paying better attention.

Their interrogation so far had been very pleasant, conducted solely by this version of Kakashi, and also completely one-sided. Following Shikamaru's lead, Sasuke had tried the tactic of being as open and honest as possible. It wasn't like they could do much if this alternate village decided to _stop_ playing nice. These people did at least seem concerned about getting their own versions of Sasuke and Shikamaru back, which was somewhat reassuring. Sasuke would hate to be stuck here.

"You two are _so cute_!" the older version of Ino announced, as soon as she arrived in the room. "I'm so glad I got this assignment. Don't you just want to _squeeze_ them?" she asked Kakashi-sensei, who was currently sitting behind his desk with air of bored unconcern.

"I hope he doesn't," Sasuske deadpanned, glancing at Shikamaru.

"I'm starting to see why everyone who patrols with you calls you a 'grumpy little bad luck charm,'"Shikamaru muttered back. "This is troublesome."

Sasuke scowled. There were advantages to playful banter, especially if you were trying to ease tensions or gain trust, but he felt that last comment was distinctly unnecessary.

"Is there any chance someone might be able to bring you home after examining the seals still in your own universe, or is Jiraiya out of the village?" the alternate Kakashi asked.

Well. Crap.

Jiraiya _was_ out of the village, but that didn't mean no one would be looking at the seals. Damn it. Sasuke hadn't thought of that.

"Urgh," Sasuke groaned, rubbing his head. "Yeah, someone will be trying to bring us home." Judging by the look on his face, Shikamaru didn't look completely pleased with where his own thoughts were heading, either.

"Shikako's bad enough when she's messing around with magnets and gravity and explosions," Sasuke explained. Openness and honesty, right? And maybe a little incentive to work more quickly to bring them home. "I don't even want to _know_ what'd going to happen if Tsunade gives her permission to mess with the space-time… stuff?"

Time-travelling versions of themselves coming out of the woodwork, probably. Great. ("You think she's going to wait for permission?" Shikamaru muttered.)

"Oh," Ino said after the briefest of glances at Kakashi-sensei. "Did Shikako make chunnin recently too?"

Shikamaru was watching the exchange with sharp eyes, Sasuske noticed. He really wished they could talk privately. He wasn't half as experienced working with Shikamaru as he was with Shikako.

"Yeah, she fought Gaara in the third round," Sasuske confirmed. Thought about adding something- well, why not? Maybe they'd learn something from the reactions. "According to Tsunade, half the Kages in observation box bet that those two will be dating within five years," he added.

If Shikamaru wasn't happy about Sasuke saying it, then he should have kept his mouth shut earlier.

Kakashi and Ino stared.

It was weird to have Kakashi staring at him with _two_ eyes, Sasuske reflected. He hoped he wouldn't have to get used to it.

* * *

2.

"I'm not exactly a seal master," I reminded Chouji, as we made our way to the training grounds that held Shikamaru and Sasuke's… alternates. Apparently a village patrol had managed to go spectacularly badly- something involving a squirrel and the Fourth's abandoned experimental workshop. I don't know why I had expected Sasuke's first mission as a Chunin to be _calm_.

(I'd spent all of the night before last, yesterday, last night and then this morning hooking up the Hokage's crystal ball to properly get a view on _my_ Shikamaru, accompanied by two barrier team specialists and an intelligence officer who had researched twin bonds extensively. Between the three of us- four, counting the frequent visits from the Hokage herself- we'd managed to home in on Shikamaru's signal and confirm that he and Sasuske were both stuck in the alternate universe our visitors originated from, rather than, you know, vaporized. The sick tension in my belly still lingered.

I'd been just as interested in Sasuke's fate, but without a bond of twinship would have had no luck at all in sorting through the dimensions to find him. Luckily, they'd ended up together. It had been hard enough to modify the Hokage's instrument to pick up other dimensions as it was- getting that thing to actually "switch channels" had been a nightmare. Following that metaphor, there was no remote. It was more like… radar. The intelligence officers had done their best to "ping" Shikamaru's location with my own chakra, and waited for something to "ping" back.

If the group we'd lost had _not_ included someone with a twin in the village –or, perhaps, a shadow clone fortuitously left behind- they'd likely have _remained_ lost.)

It was a few minutes before I managed to pass the ANBU discreetly watching, and a moment after that before I could spot the older Shikamaru from my place on the tree branch. Even then I only managed to get a glimpse of his spiky hair and the top of his face. He was… seventeen? Maybe nineteen. He looked weary, but calm. He looked… a lot like Dad. Huh.

I jumped down to ground-level, where Ino and our two guests were standing around awkwardly. Meanwhile, Ino was staring at Shikamaru in gleeful fascination. What was she looking a-

Oh.

Oookaay.

"You have a _beard_!" Ino said, clapping her hands together gleefully.

Sasuke was also missing an arm, but the alternate Shikamaru's beard was honestly more eye-grabbing. It was… um. Clearly in the process of growing.

I was pretty sure this was not a version of evil!bearded Shikamaru- not the least because I could not imagine any version of Shika as actually evil. More likely he had determined that shaving was troublesome, or else didn't want to look like a carbon copy of Dad.

"It looks like Shino stuck a fuzzy caterpillar on your chin," I said honestly, still examining the… thing.

Shikamaru blinked at me, surprised and then drinking in every detail of my appearance, and then took a breath that was carefully even.

What that meant, I didn't know. It wasn't anger and he didn't seem upset with me, at least.

Sasuke was also looking at me carefully. "Shikako. You're… ah, looking well," he managed, looking awkward and horribly guilty.

I'd had two sleepless nights, had used up more than a soldier pill's worth of chakra, and had my hair mussed from where I'd laid my head on the Hokage's desk for half an hour after we'd finally found our lost team.

Shikamaru shot him a glare. Which… what? What was this?

Ino and Chouji looked concerned, the mood of a few moments earlier fading entirely.

I had no idea what was going on, and I was too tired to guess. "I have no idea what is going on," I said. ….Aaand apparently my brain-to-mouth filter was in just as good shape as my guessing skills.

Shikamaru and Sasuke were… communicating something with their eyes? I didn't know. I was too tired for this bull.

…Okay, that wasn't completely honest. I knew Shika well enough to know that this version of him was carefully not-blaming Sasuke for something, and Sasuke well-enough to know that this version of him felt… I wasn't sure if it was guilt or he was just acknowledging that he had some sort of responsibility to uphold, but that told me jack about the actual situation.

There was a long, awkward pause.

Right. I was ready for some sleep.

"Where I'm from, you tried to help some people," Shikamaru said at last, silent conversation between themselves apparently over. He discreetly signaled, " _seven_." Then he sighed, scrubbing his hair. "But there was nothing you could have done."

I felt faint with more than just exhaustion. And cold. Very, very cold.

I stared at my feet.

I knew who he was talking about. I knew who I _hadn't_ helped when I was seven.

"Shikako," the older Sasuke was talking to me. Why would he? Why would he bother with someone like me? I'd done nothing to deserve it. I'd done _nothing_ , and I didn't deserve anything from him, least of all concern. Why did he still care? " _Shikako_." There was a hand on my shoulder. It was Shikamaru's.

"I wasn't brave enough," I told the ground. My throat was thick "I wasn't-"

"Being brave enough wouldn't have done anybody any good," the older Sasuke said, wearily. "It would just have gotten you killed. It _did_ get you killed."

I managed to drag my head up long enough to glance at him, before guilt bent it down again.

Sasuske looked tired. An exhausted man, rather than a stressed teenager.

"…It would have been a waste," Sasuke told me quietly. It had the echo of a well-remembered phrase that had followed him for some time.

Shikamaru carefully wasn't looking at him.

My throat stuck. "I still have a responsibility. For what I didn't do. I should have been… better."

Sasuske actually rolled his eyes. "Yes, Hokage-sama. Our lives remain, as always, in your hands alone. In the future I am this village shall flourish underneath the subtle meddling of your benevolent dictatorship."

He spoke a little more deliberately than my Sasuke would have, I think. It was clear his intent was reassurance.

But this Sasuske wasn't the one I'd wronged, the one I'd needed to apologize to. The Shikako of that other world had done her best by him, even if she had never lived to become his teammate.

"You weren't responsible for the whole village, 'Kako," Shikamaru said. On the surface it was a reassurance- and yet there was another note in it that seemed faintly pleading.

…And it occurred to me, abruptly, that maybe the person the Shikako of that other world had wronged has been Shikamaru. Maybe she hadn't been responsible for the whole village- beyond the responsibilities of one sentient creature to another- but she'd been responsible for herself. She'd been responsible for not breaking her Shika's heart.

How long had he been alone?

I put my hand on his upper arm, a good foot taller than my own. It was an apology.

He ruffled my hair.

Which… well. Hair ruffling is not very effective on someone who wears their hair in a braid. But it was slightly annoying to have him ruffle my hair like a child, even if he was now years older than me. Although technically, I was still older in terms of experience.

Hair ruffling is however, very effective on spiky hair like Shika's, especially if one disentangles the hair tie completely. Hah.

Ino snorted.

"You've never done _that_ before," Shikamaru muttered.

I looked at him, a question in my eyes.

He sighed again. "I suppose it would be more troublesome to keep it from you. There was an attack on all the Hidden Villages a few months ago, using Edo Tensei that were given just enough freedom to keep their personalities."

I sucked in a breath. _Oh, Shika._ It was the first time I'd let myself think of this alternate Shikamaru as "Shika," but how could I not? Barring one different decision on my part, they'd be the same.

He… couldn't meet my eyes, suddenly.

"When the caster giving the orders was removed, most of those who'd been summoned went on to their rest, or else were sealed," he said.

"But not me?" I asked, knowing what he was getting at.

"I had you wrapped up in my shadows at the time," he said, looking away. "Even if she'd _wanted_ to go, I wouldn't have-" He cut himself off, then said, very deliberately: "I would still have made her stay."

He wasn't looking at Ino or Chouji either. I expect it was something he'd known about himself for a while, now, and not wanted to admit to anyone else. There was something confessional about meeting your loved ones from other realities, I supposed.

"Moron," I told him. "You know she wanted to stay. She's not going to chance leaving you behind."

* * *

3.

It had been nostalgic, and a little funny, to see a twelve-year old Ino alternately poke at him and swoon at Sasuke. But when Shikamaru saw his twin, tall and strong and alive, there was part of him that wanted to weep.

He soaked everything in, instead. The warmth of her skin on his hair, the pallor of exhaustion rather than death, even the faint crease-mark left on her cheek- it wasn't that he wanted this Shikako to replace his own. It was that he wanted these things for his Shikako. And he knew she wouldn't get them.

So he took it all in. And then he gently, carefully, set that dream aside.

He'd already been given far more than he had a right to. Even if it had hurt at the time…

On the battlefield of the Fourth Shinobi War, when Shikamaru Nara peered past the mass of zetsu clones there had been... there had been a shape. And he'd known, and it had been heartbreaking and awful (and, in some selfish part of himself, wonderful) that she'd been ripped from her rest to come back to stand in the same place as him once more.

But it had still hurt.…

Because he'd had hope, up until that point. After he'd done his digging into Root, about the children who went missing all through Fire Country, he'd hated everything about it with a passion but he'd still _hoped_.

And then he'd seen her, and she was tiny and the hand he'd always remembered as fitting his is far too small and he'd known she was _gone_. Even though she'd been right here.

And she had stared at his face like it was the most heartbreaking thing in the world, and she'd walked toward him with a kunai in her fist and...

"Don't you dare let me stab you," she'd choked out through the sobs, walking forward. "You. Stay _alive_ , _"_ she'd begged. Commanded.

And his shadow had wrapped around her like it belonged there (it did, it did) and held her still, so she couldn't hurt him. So she'd _know_ she couldn't hurt him. So she'd know he wouldn't let anything hurt her not ever again.

He'd knelt to the ground in front of her, and put his hands on her shoulders as gently as he could. He remembered the feeling of trying not to grip too tight. Of being terrified he'd frighten her, or hurt her somehow.

She'd been trying so hard not to cry.

"I think I'm the distraction," she'd whispered, horrified.

He hadn't cared.

…He'd wrapped her in his shadows until Kabuto was dead, and only dragged himself away to aid in the rest of the fight when she'd promised to wait for him- _In the living world Shika, so don't get any funny ideas_. Then Naruto had won, and Shikamaru had returned, and they'd traveled back to Konoha together. (Dad might have been the one to carry her home on his back, but Shikamaru had held her hand the entire time.)

Seeing Shikako alive and well and growing… it was almost as terrifying as it was heartbreaking. Because all that could stop at any moment, and Shikamaru didn't know if he was capable of going through that anymore. It would break him.

Knowing that, once he left, he wouldn't be able to help this Shikako when she needed it- well, that hurt like hell, too. It was better not to think of it.

* * *

4.

Nearly three days after they'd arrived in this strange dimension where everyone was old and Konoha was built inside a crater, and Sasuke had started to get some freedom of movement around the village, even if he and Shikamaru were still being chaperoned by either the older Ino or an older Naruto.

"Shikako _died_?" Sasuske asked, as they left the Nara house. Meeting the younger version of his teammate had been a shock (even if he hadn't realized the Edo Tensei implications.) Initially, he'd thought that for some reason, Shikako had been born a decade later… but no.

The older Ino nodded faintly, face pensive with traces of remembered grief. "She went missing from a game of ninja when we were seven."

"Who was it?" Shikamaru asked. Sasuske wouldn't mind knowing that himself. Orochimaru was an obvious suspect. That was the problem- he was _too_ obvious a suspect.

"He's dead now," Ino replied. "Not as slow as he deserved, but he's dead. Sasuke killed him."

Well, good. But that was still missing all the important information.

 _"Who was it?"_ Shikamaru repeated, grimly.

Ino shook her head, regretful but firm. "It's safer if you don't know who. If I were you I wouldn't even report this conversation, when you get back."

Shikamaru's fingers had formed a circle, and his eyes were cold. "So it's someone who could very easily be dangerous to me, in our world. Someone who is perhaps already a threat to Shikako. Someone within the village, and in power."

"The more you know, the worse the danger is for you _and_ for Shikako," Ino said. "Hokage-sama told me not to name names or quote deeds, and frankly, in this case I agree with him." She gave a quick, almost unnoticeable glance at Sasuske.

And he'd picked up hint that the people in this version of Konoha didn't entirely trust him, but there was also something about this conversation that rang a bell. _Power…"more in power than just the Hokage." Safer if you don't know who…"Don't you know how easy it is to be overheard?" The constant suspicion that someone had been sent to watch. To follow. To observe and report._

"It's the guy in charge of that organization that puts seals on people's tongues, isn't it?" Sasuke asked grimly.

Older Ino twitched.

Shikamaru , though clearly annoyed that he had never heard of any such group, sent Sasuske a confirming nod that yes, this older Ino's reaction meant Sasuke was right on the mark.

"Well, Kakashi-sensei" -and wasn't that weird, Kakashi-sensei as Hokage- "said you couldn't name names or quote deeds, but he never told you not to give me advice on how to kill him. Or just mistakes to avoid, that sort of thing."

There was a half-smile working at Ino's mouth. A concession. "You didn't know what he'd done to Shikako, when you killed him." The smile left. "I think that's why Shikamaru can't really get on with you. It's not that he didn't get to take revenge personally- it's that you didn't kill that man _for Shikako_."

…And apparently those were all the hints they'd be getting.

* * *

5.

Tsunade looked up from the scene she had observed in her newly-calibrated crystal ball and ran her hand along her face. "Shit, but I need a drink," she told the empty room.

The worst part was, she couldn't even be pretend to be confused at why a version of Shimura Danzo had killed a seven-year old girl. He kept secrets like he breathed, and the Nara girl had an instinct for poking her nose into trouble that had to be seen to be believed.

She tapped her fingers on her desk. "Shizune!" she called out, to the hallway beyond.

"Yes, Tsunade-sama?"

"Send a note out to the Jounin Commander, will you? Tell him I have an update on what we've learned." (And a crystal ball to give him, she thought grimly. Her office was a secure as she could make it, but she wasn't the only one who could use the A-rank jutsu it took to activate the device. And it wouldn't look suspicious to give it away- if anything, overly sentimental on her part. Good. Maybe he could try to reign in his twins before they investigated their way into shallow graves. Or at least follow that trail closely enough to use whatever they'd found to pin Danzo to the wall.)


	6. General Chapter 5

Current Location: Uchiha District, Canon _World (maybe I should start doing this once DoS world shows up)_

* * *

Switch: Tatted Up  
by: Fragile Wishes

Shikako stares out into the dark from the balcony. 4 ANBU guards were present, one of them a hidden ROOT agent. She knew this one from ANBU and the way his chakra was muted. It didn't have any personality. She could sense their guard's chakra easily, their attention always directed at her and Sasuke. Never violently, but with the potential to be. Sasuke and she were an _unknown_. The Konoha headbands helped but there was no trust in them (except Naruto, who was….well Naruto). The _assigned_ house they had been invited to stay at (more like house arrested) gave her a view of the empty little town. She remembers every single part of this damn place. Knows exactly who lived in each house. She knows exactly where each drop of blood landed at. Remembers the sword, the inverted grey scale visions, and reek of death. Itachi had been a cruel bastard.

 _In the world of Tsukiyomi, time and space are mine to command…three hours, forty nine minutes, and twelve seconds to go…_ It still makes her get goosebumps.

"You're ANBU?"

Shikako turned to look at Kakashi, who seemed to have not uttered a sentence. He was looking down at his Icha Icha book. Even in the dark, she didn't doubt he could see the words. Her sleeve was fluttering in the wind exposing her tattoo. She hadn't minded that Kakashi saw it, she needed him on her side if things went down. Mainly the danger called Danzo.

"yes" The question had been clearly an invitation to talk. He wasn't asking because he didn't know, he was asking because he wanted her to talk to him. He had been sent to create a bond with someone she would trust. Who better than the counterpart of their sensei?

Kakashi also knew that the reason she had moved from her perch on the couch was that he had arrived. Without a three people team, the watches between Sasuke and her would be longer and more grueling as time went on, but she had no one she could trust in this world, not completely. The play by play almost made her laugh. Ninjas never ceased to be amusing in some ways.

"You recommended us a year ago…at least our Kakashi-sensei did"

Kakashi did abandon his page for that. ANBU wasn't a nice place to work at. He probably never imagined recommending hi students to that section of the troops. At least not until they were older. But ANBU afforded them with the opportunity to come in contact with ROOT. The time they had spent at training took them away from the field, which stopped a few assassin and kidnapping (Sasuke hated Orochimaru completely) attempts. Sasuke and Shikako had been ready to join though, and that was what had sealed the decision.

"US?" he looked back towards the house where Sasuke was resting. He didn't even fight Shikako about taking the first watch. The seal had taken a toll on his younger body. He was annoyed that Shikako was almost a foot taller than him and it didn't help that she kept teasing him about it.

"Yes, him too. Naruto was a bit busy or he would have joined us"

Kakashi's eyebrows rose a bit because she meant it. She didn't say it because she was being nice about it, Naruto did deserve to be with them. She could have even blamed _him_ for their unlucky fate if he was here.

"Indeed?" He said going back to his book and looking like he could care less about what she said.

"Yep. Took his Jounin test a month ago. Passed with flying colors" Oh god, it was fun making him twitch "his Rasenshuriken was quite scary to witness" He gave her a side-eyed stink eye making her chuckle. Yeah, he had made the Rasengan even _cooler_. She wouldn't tell him about sage-mode thought. That might actually make him have a hemorrhage.

There was silence and Shikako just waited, she almost wanted to look at her nails.

He finally gave in and asked "and Sakura?" Naruto had told Sasuke and her all about his teammates, so she didn't have to feign ignorance.

"She became an accredited field med-nin a few months ago. She's a Chunin now" She said it wistfully. That hadn't happened here yet. She hadn't been here to take the spot.

"Field med-nin?"

"Yeah, she…ah, failed her test and joined the MedCorps" She saw the confusion (it had only been three years after all) on his face and expanded "She did really well and was picked up for combat soon after"

He nodded and looked at his book again. The mood turned a bit down. She hadn't meant to make him feel…well he looked somber. She dropped her shoulders in defeat. Damn it, she was being manipulated but she felt she owed him something.

"Part of the reason Sasuke was leaving was because the seal was killing him" She said it quietly, remembering the panic of trying to convince him to stay "He was told to either get in the barrel or die. We convinced him to talk to Tsunade and she made it a mission. It happened almost like here. We were outgunned. It was grueling but we all made it out in the end" She flexed her hand that still stiffened on cold days. He nodded at her again and she turned to go back in before she gave more information away, not willing to share anymore.

"Goodnight Kakashi-sensei"

"Goodnight" He said it softly after her.


	7. General Chapter 6

**Kakashi's thoughts on the matter. The 'would haves' and 'could haves'.**

* * *

 **Atonement  
by: Lady Hallen**

* * *

.

Kakashi glanced down at his blonde student.

"Well," he said. "What do you think, Naruto?"

Naruto had been fairly silent after meeting their unexpected guests. Normally, a silent Naruto was one to make people worry. (Despite becoming a ninja, Naruto _still_ had time for pranks. It boggled the mind.) This one Kakashi understood.

Their arrival gave a glimpse of a 'what if'. Another possible way things would have gone. And she claimed to be a Nara too, Shikamaru's twin sister. They still had to wait for the arrival of the Jounin Commander to authorize their meeting. Because no matter the genius of Shikamaru, he was still a recently promoted Chuunin.

"She…" Naruto said slowly. "She looks at me. And she has a nice laugh. Sasuke-teme actually _smiled_ at me."

The latter was said with such incredulous surprise that Kakashi thanks his mask for hiding his amusement.

"He isn't our Sasuke, Naruto," Kakashi said. It bore repeating. Technically, Naruto wasn't supposed to talk to them too, but since it involved _Sasuke_ … Kakashi just had to keep repeating that this wasn't their Sasuke, and that it wouldn't do to get too attached.

And they were ANBU.

Kakashi's head was still working on that. ANBU…he didn't want to imagine circumstances dire enough to push his students into working there. He hoped they weren't too entrenched there. The Sandaime had to make his retirement from ANBU into an order, with some watchers posted in his window for a week to ascertain that he wouldn't try anything smart and do an A-rank mission.

He had suffered from that decision. To recommend his students there…what had he been thinking?

A hand tugged at his shirt.

"Yes Naruto?" he asked.

Naruto smiled. "I like them. I think they would have been awesome teammates!"

Kakashi blinked and allowed his eyes to curve into genuine happiness. Naruto's smile was back. The smile that shone like a sun and showed to everybody that he was smiling from his heart. Transparent and looking so much like his father that it hurt.

"So they would have," he agreed, patting the blonde head.

So maybe they weren't from their world, but they still looked at Naruto like he was someone dear and precious. Someone who wasn't useless and could pull his own weight. Sasuke had smiled and made pointed jokes. The Nara, who had sharp eyes and looked as unassuming as her supposed brother, didn't turn Naruto away and teased Sasuke about his height.

They treated each other like family and though it burned Kakashi to know that he could have succeeded if he'd just _pushed_ harder, he accepted the sting of it as atonement for his own failures.


	8. General Chapter 7

Thank you, Silver Queen, for making Naruto even more awesome.

* * *

General Chapter 3: Not a Super Cool Jutsu  
by: Fragile Wishes

* * *

Shikako was up on a tree working on recreating the seal that had brought them there. The luck they had on their prior missions ought to have warned them that the A-ranked mission wouldn't stay that way. They had been sent out to _investigate_ (oh she wasn't looking forward to facing Tsunade-sama at all) when people started disappearing close to a cave with eerily, similar rumors to Koza Kubisaki's Castle. There hadn't been any time except to act. Within seconds she had found that the seal was a pocket dimension for non-living matter. The cave entrance was too far to try to outrun the area.

"Never a better time for untested seals, huh Hawk?" Sasuke had just groaned at her and gotten closer as the trap seals started to glow, trusting that she knew what was happening. He hadn't even known what the seal she was holding was for. Sasuke had locked arms with her when she stuck her elbow out.

"Shikako…." He said warningly as the glow got closer to them, tightening his hold on her.

"Activate!" The world had spun as the seal she had been trying to develop from the Hiraishin Kunai tried to transport them to Konoha, albeit too slowly, where the other half of the seal was at. The trap seal had reached them and it had pulled at them towards the void. The pain had been the only thing they had been aware of before it went blissfully dark.

The sound of footsteps interrupted her musings and she looked down.

"Good morning, Naruto"

The blond startled and looked up. Naruto had gotten distracted by watching Sasuke practice his katas with a sword. The Uchiha's reach had changed all of a sudden and not knowing your own body in a fight could mean death...and he was annoyed how little his 12 year old body could take. He specially hated that Shikako rubbed it in that she kept her body (and height) at every possible moment.

"Hey! What's the big idea!? you-"

"Scared you?" she finished with a smirk before dropping down. Naruto folded his arms and scowled a bit. He was easy to rile up.

"No way! I don't get scared by anything!"

Shikako smiled now, fondly. Back in her world she had seen him at the same age and same height. They had grown together. This Naruto was small and high-pitched loud.

"you haven't changed much, you know? still yelling at everything"

He blushed but grinned. "Oh yeah! I'm grown right!? Am I awesome neechan!? Am I a Jounin?... Am I the Hokage?" The last he uttered like a sacred vow.

He came closer and Shikako couldnt help but reach out and ruffle his hair just like Kakashi-sensei did to them. His blush spread to his cheeks and didn't move away from it. She would tell Naruto how adorable he was when she got back.

"Yes, you grew plenty. Still shorter than Sasuke though" she added teasingly "Naruto is a Jounin. Not a Hokage yet, but working towards it" She didn't doubt it would happen someday "he has never given up" she finished confidently. It was a bit weird trying to talk to Naruto about Naruto.

The blond lost his grin but looked star truck, like she had handed him all he had ever wanted in a golden dish. He stayed quiet but didn't push her hand away from his head. Shikako watched as several emotions crossed his face.. _.Oh_. She thought sheepishly. Naruto rarely heard anyone accepting his dreams and believing in him strongly, and she had said it like didn't doubt for a second that her Naruto would achieve his dreams. He wasn't precisely the same person, but this Naruto had managed too, right? Her hand moved down and squeezed his shoulder softly.

"You said you'd train me, right?" he asked suddenly. His eyes were shinny but had an edge of steel that she recognized.

"Yes. I did agree to give you a few tips" He pretty much hadn't given her any other options. Not that she could have refused him.

"Awesome! Are you going to teach me a new super cool jutsu!? Oh! How about that seal you used to beat the bone guy! You went like 'shoom', I could barely see you move and then 'Bam!'-"

She started laughing. Super cool jutsu indeed.

"How about…a game of Shogi instead?"

* * *

 **Reward for 100 Follows: (OMAKE)**

"Sasuke your...ah...you have" she touched her head gesturing at something. He reached up towards his head and flinched. He had touched something furry and he had felt it. 

"What is it" he said a bit horrified.

Shikako breathe in. and choked on her spit making her cough and double over in laugher.

She squeaked when she felt a pain in hear rear.

"Ouch! Stop it Sasuke! What are you doing?"

"You have a tail" he said it deadpan and pulled on it again.

"Let go! Where is Naruto?"

"Guys! Over here!" He was running over holding a white bunny and waving like a dumbass. He arrived grinning ear to ear and presented the white bunny proudly.

"I found it! The missing bunny!"

Shikako looked at the twitching whiskers and closed her eyes. She put her fingers to the ridge of her nose trying to hold back her headache. The tail waving behind her didn't help.

"Hey kid. I'm not a pet! I'm a summon!"

 **This is what happens when you place two authors who have the tenacity to push each other to crazy heights. We just egg each other on, I tell you.**

 **~Hallen**

WNWNWNWNWNWNNWNWNWWN

Author notes:

Hey guys! Hope you are enjoying and hope to see some of you get inspired just like Silver Queen inspired us. This probably wouldn't have happened without the forum so make sure to check it out too!

Don't forget! If you have an idea for the General Chapters (head-canons) let us know. Want to see someone interacting? That too. Want to join us in the writing process? Go ahead!

If you want to make an Omake you can too. It will just be added as such to this story too. I know someone was interested in an Older DOS Sakura meeting chibi-canon-Sakura. This means crossovers too!

Thank you, don't forget to review!

-Lady Hallen & Fragile Dreams


	9. General Chapter 8

**Warning: Angst. Violence. More angst.**

* * *

News  
by: Lady Hallen

* * *

.

The news reached Shikaku at the same time he has to deal with an assassin suddenly appearing in his tent.

It's not exactly the assassins fault, but he takes it out on the idiot, Shadow Stitching Jutsu easily piercing the man's throat while another tendril of shadow holds him in place. So easy and it was obvious that they didn't do their research, attacking him at _dusk_.

He doesn't even bother to clean up, or displace the corpse slumped by the entrance. He sits on his chair and hides his face in his hands, the missive uselessly crumpled on his desk.

He remembers it clearly. Thirteen years ago, the Kyuubi escaped and attacked Konoha. The malevolent chakra had seeped into everything, had gotten war veterans to stop and stand still in terror.

His sickly baby girl, his precious daughter, hadn't stood a chance. She had been chakra sensitive in the first place and to have that much vicious chakra thrown about…

He still remembers coming home to find a baby, dearly clinging for life. Her tiny mouth breathing out in tiny gasps, little chest struggling to rise up and down, choking on air and developing chakra slowly fizzling away to nothing. Shikaku had held her until she no longer moved, no longer breathed. He'd held her as her large eyes no longer had a light behind them and her heart stopped beating. A little part of his heart had stopped beating too.

He'd had to hold Shikamaru to ease the pain, to reassure himself that this one wouldn't die too. Yoshino had found him holding on to the living twin, face blank with shock. She had been the one to cry for him, because he had been unable to. She had to be the one to ease Shikako's little body into a proper sleeping position and uncurled her baby hands when it had fisted in her terror.

And now this.

If this was a mistake, Shikaku was beheading somebody.

Though he didn't think it was so. His presence in the border outpost was important and it had to be a bit more important than what he was doing here.

Just for a moment, he allowed himself to be weak and to imagine how she would look like. Would she have Yoshino's eyes and his smile? Would she be as quiet as all other Nara children, or would she be as noisy and gregarious as Inoichi's daughter?

He heaved a shuddering breath and pushed everything down. _Later._ He had a lot to do if he was leaving with the messenger. Like leaving more orders behind and making sure someone with at least some sense was left in charge.

It wouldn't do to be dealing with a personal crisis in Konoha and to have that interrupted just because some idiot forgot to assign the right people in the right places.

With an inaudible sigh, Shikaku stood up and opened his eyes.

* * *

 **This is angst. There will be more of it.**

 **Anyone else want to join the fun? Trust me; it's better to be on the other side. *evil laughter***

 **~Hallen**

 **P.S. Does this fic really come across as serious crack to you guys?**


	10. General Chapter 9

Current Location: Outside Creepy Cave, Naruto Canon

* * *

Big Everything  
by: Fragile Wishes

* * *

Sasuke would never admit it, but he had been frightened at first. The blackness that surrounded him had been overpowering. The barrel was doing things it _wasn't_ supposed to. It wasn't like when he had gotten the seal from Orochimaru. That had been heat, fever, anger, bloodlust, and hallucinations. This was being squeezed, stretched, and remade. It was a freefall. Literally.

He landed with an "oomph" on his face. It was uncomfortably hard. He took what off what was blocking his view with confusion. It was an ANBU mask. It had no mouth painted, but a beak. Then it was more confusion and uncertainty because he was outside a cave entrance and his body was _weird._

He stood up slowly and stumbled anyway, not expecting the sudden height. He wasn't just tall, his hands and feet were big. Hell, everything was bigger. For a few minutes he flexed his arms and legs, trying to get used to it. He thought the barrel might have done it, but then discarded that. There was no barrel, no Sound Four, and no Orochumaru. He was wearing a grey suit, arm guards, and shin guards. It was obviously an ANBU uniform. The barrel was supposed to settle the seal, not change his clothes or make him grow. And by this he meant the muscles his arms and the six pack he was sporting.

"Hawk?" He pulled down the padded vest in surprise. Two ANBU dropped down from the trees to land a few paces away.

 _:Status: :Danger?: :explosion: :Clear:_

They were signing something but he didn't know what.

"We saw an explosion" the other one said equally monotone after a few seconds "are you hurt?"

They signed each other when he failed to respond. What would he say?

"Where is the Captain?" They dropped down into the field, and he knew he had no chance against ANBU. He tried to dispel whatever genjutsu he was under, to no avail. Where they here because of his deflection?

"Who are you?" He said getting into a fighting stance. Faster than he could move there was a sword to his throat. He was on his knees and one of the ANBU behind him.

"Deer!" one of them shouted into the cave. They traded more signs after there was no response. As soon as he tried to move, the sword was digging into his skin.

"Who are you?'" They repeated the question back to him. They didn't know who he was? They weren't here for him? He thought about lying but the sword was back to cutting.

"Sasuke" He said bitterly. What was going on?

They traded more signs over his head. The sword left his throat and he breathed out in relief. He felt stupid when he felt the hilt hit the back of his head. The pain was sharp and everything went dark.

MNMNMNMNM

ANBU are scary. And of course Shikako is the captain. She is a Nara.

Big everything you say Sasuke? Don't make me blush. I'm pretty sure he didn't mean it like that but whatever you know.

-On how we got a new super cool title cover-

 _Excerpt from Conversation with Lady Hallen:_

 **Lady: See. You like? Done by Silver Queen**

F. Dreams: OMG. When did she do that?

 **Lady: Uh…3 hours ago? Isn't she awesome?**

F. Dreams: I'm grinning like an idiot over here

 **Lady: Hahaha**

F. Dreams: Im not crying

 **Lady: Stuff like this makes me love SQ. She even accommodates our terrible assumptions about her story and makes us fan art.**

Thank you Queen 3 She made us a Switch cover art. Check it out on Deviantart.

Check out Violet-Skya on Fanction. I wrote a piece for her fanart. Its hosted on her profile.


	11. General Chapter 10

Written by Lady Hallen. Tweaked by Fragile Dreams.

 **Instructions:** **Before we begin…please go to soundcloud, youtube, or whatever. Play Gary Jules - Mad World and come back. Listen to it while reading.**

Current Location: Canon World, Nara Residence

* * *

What were you searching for?

* * *

For as long as Shikamaru can remember, his birthdays are always melancholic for his parents.

They look at him and smile, but there was a wealth of sadness brimming in their eyes. They were careful not to show it, and some birthdays they didn't even look sad, but most of them were spent with genuine happiness and carefully hidden sadness at the same time. His dad would ruffle his hair carefully in the morning, he'd get gifts from both of his parents after breakfast, then be gently shooed out of the house to spend his birthday with his friends.

He didn't notice it for a while. Not until he was well into the Academy. That in the evening, his father would keep company a bottle of sake, sometimes joined by Yamanaka-san and Akamichi-san. His mother would carefully smooth out a wrinkled picture, kiss it, and burn some Incense. Incense was for the dead. He was never told and he never asked.

He didn't truly understand until he had graduated and given a free day. His father had been busy at the tower and his mother would be talking with Kufuku-oba about new medicine research. His birthday was in a few months and he got the itch to know _why? Why do you look like that?_

He had eventually found the picture in a box. It wasn't exactly hidden but his mother would never imagine him on his belly under the bed. He had sat right by the bed and opened it. The picture was of a baby girl laying on her back, her hands by her head. Her eyes were rimmed red like she had been crying, but looked peacefully asleep. Her cheeks were red and chubby, her skin soft, and her hair fluffy and short. She was a Nara. He could tell by the shape of her forehead and nose.

 _Shikako Nara_ it said on the back. The Shika name made his heart lurch.

He understood then. His parents had had a daughter before him. She would have been the heir and his older sister. He tried to imagine it and couldn't. The box had a pacifier, a tiny dress, and a baby suit. He was no longer confused as to why his parents were mourning. He ignored the sting of his eyes and put it back carefully so his mother wouldn't be able to tell her had been in their room. He didn't tell them, but that night on his bed he talked to his sister for the first time, even if she couldn't answer.

MWMWMWMW

He had apparently never truly understood anyway, because Asuma-sensei had left him feeling like the floor didn't exist anymore. He was sitting by himself outside his house trying to distract himself with shogi and a move his father had left him to analyze. Chouji was still in the hospital and he had been sent home by Tsunade.

"What?" he said flatly. It was less like a question and more like a statement.

Asuma- sensei was tired. "Shikamaru, do you remember that Nara that arrived and saved the mission?" he asked. He wasn't saying something. _Are you okay?_ Had gone unsaid but it was there. He was digging. He wasn't saying it because of Chouji, he was saying it because of the Nara.

The things connected in his mind. That Nara? The girl from another universe. That was his older sister? The person that Lee and Temari had been talking about was _his_ Nara?

"Are you saying she is Shikako Nara?"

Asuma-sensei was looking like he wanted to be as far away from the conversation as possible. He was used to Shikamaru jumping to correct conclusions.

"You know who she is?" He said not surprised. He looked at his sensei with a flat look. It didn't matter that he had found out just recently.

"So, she is from another world?" His finders had unconsciously formed a circle "And she lived?"

He ignored the lurch his stomach gave. What was she like? What did she look life grown up? How old was she?

"The corrosive chakra of the Kyuubi didn't affect her as much, maybe she was further away, or maybe, like you, she pulled through" His sensei said taking out the lighter and lighting his cigarette. A lot of newborns had been killed by the corrosive chakra. Newborns.

The words jarred something in him, _Kyuubi_ and _like you,_ flashing in his mind. Not his older sister. His twin. His twin had died. He had always felt like something was missing…and he had found what it was, and he would never get it. He knew then, why it was on his birthday. Why his mother's smile always looked a bit fragile. _Shikako Nara_.

His sensei's eyes sharpened "you didn't know" _I thought…_

"I thought she was older than me" he said looking down at the board. His sensei cursed and dropped his cigar, killing it with his shoe.

"Can I see her?" he asked before he could help himself. He hadn't given her much thought beyond a small bit of gratitude for salvaging a nearly impossible situation. Now he felt like he _had_ to see her. He wanted to see what he could have had.

Sensei sighted, "She's under guard. We're still waiting for your father and Jiraya-sama"

How bloody troublesome.

"You're not telling my mom, are you?" he asked. He didn't think he could stand it if she spent the entire time waiting for his father, crying. Well, he didn't she would cry. His mother wasn't the type to cry. She'd just walk around the house, face as brittle as glass and **quiet**.

"No

"Sensei said "but Naruto is bringing them groceries every two days"

Of course Naruto would be spending his time with an ANBU from another world, someone who was under guard at that. But his sensei was giving him information, or a way to get it.

"Troublesome" he muttered. He dropped his shoulders and looked down at the board. At that word, Asuma-sense relaxed.

* * *

A slightly longer chapter.

Lady Hallen: Brilliant. Is it heartbreaking enough?

 **Fragile Wishes: my throat felt funny when I was reading it**


	12. General Chapter 11

You!? Who are you?  
by: Fragile Wishes

* * *

 _Current Location: DOS World, Konoha, Torture and Interrogation Headquarters._

Sasuke had been in the cell for 2 days now (or at least he thought so). He had been fed, given a book, and left mostly alone. He had woken up without the ANBU gear he had been wearing, but instead with standard issued Konoha pants, tight undershirt, and pair of sandals. His head wasn't hurting, so they had at least healed him. The only thing out of the ordinary was a seal on his forearm. He could guess what it did. He could feel his chakra, but it was caged. Every time he tried to control it, it felt like he was trying to get water with a strainer.

Four ANBU came to get him after his 6th plate of food. It was mostly untouched, except for the sealed bar. Not that it was safe to eat it, but he was _hungry_. He was held by each arm and taken several passages, until he was lost (and that was the point, he supposed). They tied him to a chair and left the room. There was a mirror on one wall. It didn't take much guessing.

He didn't have to wait long…and it was Ibiki who came in carrying a folder. He looked fierce as anything.

"For all intents and purposes _you_ are Sasuke Uchiha. You have the Sharingan and the blood matches" He gave a look to Sasuke, expecting something. The Uchiha didn't know what.

"You were found outside the Kubisaki Cave. The Captain of your squad has gone missing in action" He continued. Why was he being given all this information?

"Now the question is…is your mind yours?" What?

"Stop playing games, Orochimaru, show yourself!" Sasuke leaned back away from the sudden explosion of sound. Ibiki had smacked the table with an open hand. But he hadn't even seen the missing-nin.

"I'm not Orochimaru" The man had been looking for signs. He was studying his face intently. Sasuke didn't doubt that on the other side they were watching him too.

"There was no reports of Orochimaru being near the area of the mission. The seal has remained dormant, and the time frame was short. But you are not in fact Sasuke"

He raised his chin "I am Sasuke" but he could see it too. This wasn't his body. The man waited for more. Sasuke didn't say anything else. The man loomed over him but the door was slammed open before he could say anything.

A young man that looked like Naruto entered after pushing an ANBU away and shutting the door on their face.

"Naruto-" _Naruto?_

The blond grabbed Sasuke by his shirt "listen here idiot, you are going to tell us who you are right now! Who do you work for? Where is Shikako-chan!" Sasuke would have smacked his hands away, except he was tied. He settle for scowling. The blond shook him. "Where is she!?"

"Stand down Jounin!" Ibiki pulled Naruto away and to the wall. Naruto shook him off "It's been two days! Two days! She needs us and she could be…" His shoulders dropped, not willing to finish the sentence.

"you were allowed in here because your sensei pulled some strings and the Hokage likes you. Don't make me drag you out"

The blonde raised his chin in a 'try me' motion but relaxed his stance. He shrugged off Ibiki and came to the table again.

"You! who are you?"

Sasuke sneered at him "Sasuke Uchiha"

"Liar!" he said turning red

Behind him Ibiki pinched between his eyes "Sit down Naruto, you are not helping"

The blond sat down huffing. Ibiki came again and opened the folder on the table.

"Name?" He said monotone writing on the paper. Sasuke didn't know what.

"Sasuke Uchiha" he sneered back

"Registration number"

"012629"

"Birthdate?"

"July 23rd, YTN"

"Blood type?"

The questions continued. Konoha emergency codes. Places. Dates. Words that had no meaning. Some were ridiculous and others he was just confused. Most of his answers started being "I don't know"

"I don't know" He said again with a scowl. Who was this Shikako they kept asking about? Deer?

Ibiki closed his folder and gave him a long look. Naruto was bouncing his foot, looking worried.

"What is the last thing you remember?" He thought about lying but the look Ibiki gave him wasn't kind. It was a warning. _I dare you to lie to me_. He didn't open his mouth. What would he say? I was on my way to Orochimaru's hideout? The man's eyes sharpened. He had found something.

"What is the last thing you remember? I won't ask again. Not without _help_ "

He sneered at the man and raised his chin

"I was in a barrel, being taken to Orochimaru by the Sound Four" There. He wasn't saying he was a traitor.

"What-"

Ibiki shut the blond up and pulled him out of the room. He sagged a bit on his chair. It really did look like Naruto grownup. He even wore the same orange jumpsuit (albeit with black). The Jounin jacket and the headband were Konoha issued. Naruto was an orphan though. What was going on?

The left him for an hour. He didn't doubt they were on the other side of the window. Who else was there?

Ibiki came back without Naruto, but the blond behind him made him freeze. He knew the man.

"I see that you know who this is"

"Inoichi Yamanaka" He said coldly.

"We think there is a problem with your memories. We need to take a look" The blond behind him looked serious, but calm.

Sasuke's arms flexed.

"No"

"Sasuke, if that is who you are, we need to do it. We would prefer not to harm you. It will happen on or against your will" Ibiki said

The blond walked closer grimacing "Please cooperate"

He sneered at them and pulled at his restraint. Harm him? Or who they thought he was? The restraints dug into his skin, not giving away. The blond came closer and put a hand on his head. He tried to shrug it off, but the hold was strong. He saw the other hand form a sign.

"Relax and think of something nice"

He wished he could have spoken at that moment. He would have showed him nice.

MNMNMNMNMNMNMN

This went from humor to this pretty fast. It was supposed to be a hyper grown up Naruto and a grumpy little Sasuke. How did we end up in the Torture and Interrogation headquarters? One can only wonder.


	13. General Chapter 12

Written by: Fragile Wishes, tweaked by Lady Hallen (F.W. grins like a moron)

Current Location: Canon World, Uchiha District

* * *

Worth it!

* * *

"Hn. The Dobe finally left"

Shikako turned away from the door. Naruto had just left with a happy grin vowing to return the next day. Sasuke was sitting on the table wiping his sword. He avoided being close to her when she was standing. As if she wouldn't notice, hah! She smirked at him as she went to stand beside him.

"Yes. He just wanted a small lesson on explosive seals"

Just like she knew it would happen, Sasuke's eye twitched and his hand tightened on the cloth he was using.

"Shikako" he said slowly and warningly "...I am going to kick your ass when we get back"

She pinched his cheek and got out of retaliation space before he could smack her hand away.

"Your pout looks even more adorable on your tiny face"

She shifted to avoid the rag and laughed delightedly.

She hummed as she cooked dinner for them. It was relaxing as it was vexing being stuck there. They had been back-to-back missions for ANBU lately, trying to trap ROOT members, and this was almost a welcome reprieve...but then again...Stranded in another world, friends, and Akasuki. She sighted and added lots of tomatoes to the stir fry. She listened as Sasuke cleaned up and set the table for them. She served the plates and went to the table.

She really couldn't help it, as soon as Sasuke grabbed his forkful of food and opened his mouth she added "Eat up Sasuke-kun, boys need food to grow big"

She dodged the fork and laughed. Worth it.

When Sasuke recovered his temper and Shikako could look at him without breaking into giggles, (Though this was his ANBU captain, he tossed that information out of the window and he was definitely showing her who was the boss when he got back into his body.) she unsealed a scroll and took out some sealing supplies.

Sasuke immediately set about to writing what his sharingan remembered seeing on the cave, the seal large and intricate, half a seal and more of an art at that point. She could have asked him to do this earlier, but she didn't know he had his sharingan active when the seal started to glow blue. Her fault for not asking in the first place.

He was careful not to use chakra, the last thing he needed was it activating. It had been that brush of chakra, after all, that had jump started the seal.

Shikako made a sort of groaning sound in her throat that really was sounded like someone stabbed her with something.

"How bad is it?" he asked. He only understood a bit of it that said something about 'nature conversion' because he had seen the exact same thing when Jiraiya had enlarged the cursed seal on his neck. Well, he didn't exactly understand what it was about back then, but he had the misfortune of having a teammate practically gushing over the genius of Orochimaru and how intricate it was. He would have agreed to, if only it wasn't attached to his neck.

Too much movement on his shoulders still made the Cursed Seal twinge and it irked him because his real body had more restrictions on it and he only felt pain from it on a bad day. He didn't need to deal with this again, dammit.

"It's," she started, "It's very complicated. I mean, technically, it isn't supposed to have switched you-us at all."

His mind whirled and he thought back to how it happened. Creeping through the tunnel, being signaled by his captain to fall back but following a couple of steps behind her anyway. His gut had flared in alarm back then, and he was completely right. Shikako no longer could be all over his face about unjustified paranoia. Of course, she'd tried to counter a mostly unknown activating seal (that was about to kill them, he could give her that one) with another seal…

"Your seal," he said abruptly, making her blink at him. "The one you used to try and get us away. What was that all about?"

"That was one of my experimental seals for working out the Hiraishin," she said easily. Sasuke felt the need to bash his head on the table (or hers, that sounded better). _Working out the Hiraishin,_ she said, like she had just been making a sealing scroll. Her gaze was already very distant, her eyelids rapidly blinking as she sorted things out in her mind, brain whirling.

"If both of them melded, it might be possible. I hadn't finished the details on the other one...the _recipient,_ you could say. There was a lag when it tried to transport us…well nowhere really. I mean, there are certain parameters that might not be compatible but if …"

She wandered off, hands grabbing a pencil and rapidly scribbling through her notebook.

Sasuke finished drawing the cave seal with a flourish, setting down the pen and massaging his fingers. His hands might be used to doing hand seals within seconds, but it wasn't used to writing like Shikako. There was a reason why Kakashi-sensei submitted paperwork late, and it had nothing to do with his memory. Though, Kakashi-sensei probably did it to annoy the Chuunin's assigned for filing it too. (You never knew with that one.)

"I'm finished," he announced.

There was no answer. Sasuke glanced to the side and sighed. Shikako was stuck in her own head, pencil scribbling fast and paper crinkling. She occasionally mouthed words, paused and continued writing with a shrug.

This happened to her when stuck with inspiration and luckily, it only occurred when not in a mission, or when she was comfortable enough to focus the entire force of her intellect on it.

That had led to more than one hilarious situation.

Sasuke tugged her braid and she obediently stood up, not even disturbed. He placed her by the porch where he could see her and started stretching, exploring the limits of his younger body and trying not to feel too dismayed when it didn't even reach his standards.

Really bloody annoying, he thought. But at least there was some measure of work being done. Her methods were innovative but it had saved them. Non-living matter. That's what the seal had been for in the cave. Would Kakashin and Naruto found them amongst countless bodies? Would they have fallen in the seal trap too?

Hopefully they wouldn't have to stay here for long. He could feel the ROOT member's creepy look on him. He kept training. Better than waiting for Jiraiya, at least.

NMNMMNMMNMMNM

 _"How domestic right? This is the last one I'm sharing. Goodbye DOS Switch"_

This is what I wrote on the forum...and then I went ahead and messaged Lady for a collaboration and we spawned ideas like nobody's business. - FW

Excerpt from conversation with Lady Hallen

Lady: it's alright? I'll send it over after I'm done for co-authority approval…we've stated what needs writing. Pick one…

*Several messages later*

(Very serious)Lady: For people who posted 'What plot? We seem to be getting anal about this.


	14. General Chapter 13

Warnings: Some cut off action, and a lot of rumination

* * *

Broken Mask  
by: Fragile Wishes (Tweaked by Lady Hallen)

* * *

 _Current Location: Naruto Canon, Uchiha District_

Shikako freezes for a second as the mask breaks beneath her chakra saturated fist. Sasuke's chakra fluctuates as he wakes up. She would have signaled him about the approaching ROOT member if it wouldn't give away her chakra sensitivity. She would be seen as even more dangerous and her guard would tighten. She didn't need that. She doesn't let go of the ROOT member who tries to break off her hold. This face she has seen several times. Sai had showed her a drawing of him after all.

The ANBU guarding them rush towards the house and she has seconds to decide. If she turns him in he will die. Either by his own hand, the seal, or Konoha. If she lets him go he will go back to Danzo with information. She had the seals in her possession now, but he had seen them. Was he good at recreating them?

Yes or no? She has to make a decision. Sai's face as he holds out the book with him and his brother flashes in her mind. Her hold softens and the ROOT member pulls away, her distraction costing her. A kunai embeds in her thigh. He runs out the window and out into the night. The ANBU push the door open and 2 jump after the man. Sasuke comes running in, eyes already spinning into Sharingan red. His hands hover over the Kunai.

"What's happened?" The captain asks, sheathing her ANBU issued tanto.

"Someone tried to steal the notes of the seals," She says, applying medical chakra to her thigh while Sasuke drags the Kunai out slowly. "I thought he was ANBU," She says lying and as an excuse of why she lost. "How did he get in?"

The captain of the squad, Yugao, signals the other ANBU who leaves to check the perimeter. The purple haired ANBU kneels at the mask. She gets out a scroll and seals it in. Shikako stands up, her leg completely healed now.

"I will take this to the Hokage. Describe him" she says seriously handing her a paper and then taking it back. "We will stay closer, rest," She closes the door behind her.

Sasuke closes the window and goes to the kitchen. She watches as he makes tea, discreetly signaling all the while. It wasn't too far-fetched that they shared the same hand signals with this dimension. The only differences she had noted so far, was that Team 7 had Haruno Sakura as the kunoichi teammate and that she didn't seem to exist. She still wasn't sure if that was because of her reincarnation or because of something else.

:ROOT?: :SEAL: :WHO: asks Sasuke while pretending to turn on the stove

:AFFIRMATIVE: :FAILURE: :DRAW: :BROTHER:

Sasuke's hands freeze.

"Thank you, Sasuke," She says making him continue their sham. He puts the pot on the stove and almost forgets to put something in it.

"Did he take anything? Did you know him?" He says out loud but signals Sai's sign name again.

:DRAW?:

:NO: :SEE:

"I didn't recognize him. He didn't take anything" :INFORMATION: :SAW:

Sasuke also knows the significance of Sai's brother. Sai had showed him his book after all. He frowned but pursed his lips. Could they kill him? Knowing how important he was to Sai? Even from another world the answer was no. Sai hadn't been anywhere close; it had been just that member.

Well, now there wasn't much to do. Would they make another attempt? She started scratching a seal into the table. She would have done it sooner, but now she had an excuse as to why. If activated they wouldn't be heard. She applied more at the window so they wouldn't open without alarming them. The ANBU did nothing to stop her work. Well. Little victories.

She didn't even make Sasuke go to sleep again. She knew when to pick her battles.

"Do you think they know we are okay?"

Shikamaru? Would he think her dead? Would he think she was in there stuck? Kakashi, Naruto, her parents. Did her mother even know?

"I hope they know Team 7 has worse luck than dying."

He shuddered. "Don't even joke about that," he said, close to his usual deadpan.

She smirks at him.

It was lucky that the attack had come near dawn. At least Sasuke had some rest.

After they finish the pot, they migrate to the porch and watch the sky turn pink, sunrise approaching. She unsealed her portable shogi board and laid it between them. Sasuke didn't bother protesting, though he looked resigned to loosing.

"I don't even know why I do this to myself," he mutters, looking at the formidable defense she was building.

Shikako laughs under her breath. She is grateful that she is not alone in this world. Both of them are. He was the best back-up she could have. If only Naruto was with them and it would feel a bit like stressful vacation.

Sasuke looks at her from across the board and she knows he feels the same.

MNMNMNMNM

Conversation Excerpt (Please read it!)

Fragile Wishes: Fanfiction is being a butt. It doesn't say when our fic was last updated. Can you delete the previous chapter and repost it again, maybe it will fix it.

Lady Hallen: Wait. SQ just commented…am I really chancing her awesome review getting deleted?

Fragile Wishes: No, no we aren't.

Lady Hallen: …speaking of? You read ' **a little accident'**? I'm just going to die of embarrassment now.

Fragile wishes: I thought you would. I'm going to tell people to you read it in the AN. (don't worry, I once wrote TWD smut)

Lady Hallen: Ugh! I wrote that when I was still 14 years old…and snuck a read at my sister's adult books.

Fragile wishes: *tries not to laugh and fails* I'm dying.


	15. General Chapter 14

Warning: Shikamaru being paranoid, Ino being Ino and Chouji hoping that Tsunade wouldn't throw anyone out the window.

* * *

 **Taking in Strays  
written by: Lady Hallen  
tweaked by: Fragile Wishes**

* * *

 _Current Location: D.O.S. World, Hokage Tower_

Shikamaru knew something was up when they were taken to the Hokage for the mission debrief instead of T & I.

As an information gathering team, their missions usually ran with some T & I agents. C to B rank missions were debriefed by a Chuunin, the A-rank ones done by Anko or Ibiki, depending on the urgency - and one memorable moment - with Ino's and his father.

To be taken to the Hokage immediately by the mission's desk ninja though…

"Report!" Tsunade barked.

Ino did the talking once it became obvious that he wouldn't do it. He was too busy cataloging everything, sharp eyes noticing the marks of exhaustion on Shizune-san's face and a smashed sake bottle by Tsunade's desk. That Tsunade loved alcohol was an understatement. Someone must have smashed that bottle to make a point. Ninja reflexes didn't allow for accidents.

"Thank you," Tsunade replied, face blank. She rubbed a hand through her face, carefully avoiding her blonde hair. "Is that all?" They nodded. They weren't dismissed. Warning bells went off in his head. Tsunade grabbed a scroll and handed it over to Shizune. Shikamaru's gut clenched. "Nara Shikamaru, at 0900 hours, Nara Shikako disappeared while on a mission."

Shikamaru felt a little off balance. His skin shuddered with goosebumps. Chouji's hand was warm on his wrist and Ino's shoulder was pressed against his.

Tsunade was still talking.

"Uchiha Sasuke, who was with her, was retrieved by the rest of the team. However, he isn't in his right mind."

Ino's attention, which had been largely focused on supporting him, sharpened.

"Yamanka Inoichi was brought in and found… _interesting_ information in his memories."

Here, Shizune read from the scroll in a gentle, bracing voice. It didn't help at all.

"From what Inoichi-san gathered," she said. "There is a different Sasuke-san inhabiting our Sasuke's body. His memories seem to stop at the moment he is pushed into a barrel by the Sound Four, the mission you lead three years ago."

He digests that. Inoichi had said _memories._ Meaning that it wasn't just Sasuke stuck in a Genjutsu. Fake memories or illusions would not fool Inoichi for one second, that much he knows from working with a Yamanaka for years. That much detail and that many years couldn't be faked. ' _There is a different Sasuke-san inhabiting'_ he had said. Yamanaka-san didn't doubt that that was what had happened.

"What is it then? An alternate dimension," he had to say it. It was the most logical conclusion, even if not the most realistic one. (But considering the history of Team 7's missions…). Tsunade grimaced but didn't say no. Right, of course. An alternate dimension, why not? That conclusion must have been hard to reach at.

Shizune nodded. "Yes. Particularly when all of the other Sasuke's memories showed one of his teammates as Haruno Sakura instead of Nara Shikako. Furthermore, his memories proved that she did not show up at all, almost like she did not exist in that world."

His galloping brain shuddered to a halt.

A world without 'Kako. He couldn't even bear to imagine it, let alone think of it.

For a moment, an image flashed in his mind, of his sister being impaled by a sword. Movements going sluggish, blood spreading out… _ **NO!**_

He firmly pushed it away. He'd dealt with that already and his sister had gotten better. She was no longer teetering on the verge of an emotional breakdown, even if she did insist on joining ANBU. (The argument they'd had over that one had been long and filled with stingy silence, only resolved once Dad had stepped in to mediate it.)

"Do you know what happened to Shikako?" He needed to find her (he refused to think she was…gone). Kami, his sister was troublesome.

"Kakashi-san insisted in visiting the site of the disappearance," Shizune said "And found an unknown seal and part of another made by your sister. He recognized her work." There were many unspoken words in that sentence "Jiraiya is being recalled as we speak, but we believe it was a transportation seal."

At least something was being done. Some bit of tension unwound from his shoulder. Shikako _had_ to be alright.

"What about Sasuke?" Ino asked, flipping her hair over one shoulder in a nervous gesture.

Shizune shot a nervous glance at Tsunade. It was really telling, especially when Tsunade slapped a hand on her face and used the other hand to reach for a sake bottle.

"It's difficult," the Hokage groused. "To execute a traitor to the village when they're not in their own body. He was deflecting to Orochimaru when he was brought here"

The mission he had lead that gave Ino problems on a bad day. Shikako's hand sometimes trembling when it rained. Traitor. A Sasuke that had gone to Orochimaru _willingly_. He had seen Sasuke stand straight before the Hokage telling her all about what the Sound Four had said, Shikako close as she could be to him without clinging. The Sasuke that would die for his sister.

As Ino exploded over that and Chouji tried to calm her down, Shikamaru thought to the _why_. Why would he leave the village?

Team dinners flashed through his eyes and abruptly remembered that aside from his twin, all of Team 7 were orphans. Yes, even their Jounin sensei. 'Kako, with her perception of people that was better than his, had likely noticed that and made team dinners a tradition to stave off the loneliness of coming home to an empty house. Shikako who had dragged an unwilling Sasuke to their circle of friends and who had made Shikamaru approach a lonely Naruto.

A Team 7 without Shikako, one with Sakura instead…

Sakura was a nice girl, if a bit loud and screechy. Occasional glimpses of her when she came to visit Shikako an Ino, and the one mission they had gone together at her promotion to Chuunin told him she was smart, with a determined focus once she put her mind to it. She didn't have 'Kako's perception though and likely didn't notice anything about her teammates. She had been obsessed with Sasuke as a child until she had failed her test; he could see Sasuke pushing her away.

Lack of bonding exercise then. This Sasuke didn't understand why he had to stay.

"I'll take him as a guard and host" Shikamaru said abruptly, making the bickering pause. A good thing too, since Tsunade looked on the verge of tossing them all out of the window.

"What?" Shizune asked for the Hokage.

Shikamaru sighed. "I'll take him, he can't stay in T&I forever" he repeated. "He can stay at the clan house, it will be easier to guard him…And…I'll…educate him about the importance of teams. Shikako would have done it. This one doesn't understand why teamwork helps. 'Kako wasn't there for him, to make him realize it."

He said it even though it sounded cliché. Naruto had said worse.

It was unsaid that his father, the Jounin Commander, would likely come to the same conclusions and make the same offer.

It was annoying though, that it took them all a while to understand what he was getting at.

Tsunade nodded approvingly at him while Ino gaped. Shizune handed her a scroll and she stamped and signed it.

Wait…

Shikamaru groaned once he realized that he'd just volunteered for work. No wonder Ino was staring.

Still, it was better than waiting for her to come back, and Jiraya to arrive than do nothing. He needed to go find Kakashi-sensei and Naruto.

Even if she was stuck in an alternate world, his sister was still bloody troublesome.

* * *

 **OMAKE:**

Itachi stared.

Sasuke stared right back.

Two sharingan's were spinning, red eyes a glaring proof that yes, they were who they said they were. They were the only ones left, after all.

"You are not my otouto," Itachi announced.

Sasuke was torn between glaring or punching him in the face.

"No, I am not," he agreed. "I'm just possessing his body."

Perhaps, Sasuke reflected, that was the wrong thing to say as Itachi lunged, kunai in hand with a hoarse cry of, "Orochimaru!"

 **This resulted from lack of sleep. Weird things happen when I don't sleep.**

* * *

This happened in writing for Gaara (What goes behind the scenes in writing this fic is ridiculous.)

*chatting about next chapters*

FW: (previously edited a chapter) What do you think? Gaara is a bitch to write.

FW: Fuck his internal monologues.

Hallen (laughing): That, there is AN material. Revenge for last time.


	16. General Chapter 15

Relocation  
by: Fragile Wishes

* * *

Sasuke shuddered. He was curled up on the bed of his cell. An ANBU came to treat him for headaches every few hours.

' _Please relax'_

He hated those words with all his being. He had felt his memories being sifted through from a young age. Itachi playing with him, his father training him, helping his mother with the meals, seeing the clan members die, countless others. Then the most recent ones: graduating, sacrificing his life for Naruto, the chunin exams, Orochimaru biting him, and being told he was going to die. All of it left him feeling raw and scraped to the bone. He shuddered again as the migraine returned, a throbbing, pounding thing that felt like he'd done three Chidori's in a row when he could only do two. He had fought against the jutsu and it had made it worse. If he hadn't been reduced to screaming internally, he would have ripped his vocal cords. Yamanaka Inoichi may have looked kind and passive (it was the blonde hair), but he really was an aggressive, ruthless _bastard_.

"Sasuke-kun?" He ignored them and tried not to show how much pain he was in. He flinched when a hand reached for his forehead. It felt large and slender.

"I'm going to check your head okay?" He closed his eyes, knowing he would be unable to stop it. His hands fisted on his lap. The soothing cold seemed through his head. Thinking became clearer and the pain disappeared.

"Tsk. They should have called Tsunade. You know how good he is at hiding pain." The hand stayed on his forehead and he opened his eyes.

A Yamanaka was staring at him worriedly. He smacked the hand away at sat up, gritting his teeth and not shuddering at all when the pain came trickling back. Behind her was an older looking Shikamaru. He wished he would stop feeling so confused. What the hell was going on? The older looking Ino frowned before leaving, not without a reassuring smile.

"I'm Shikamaru Nara and the woman who just left was Ino Yamanaka. What have you been told?" The Nara said looking like he didn't want to be there at all. Sasuke didn't respond. "Nothing then?" he said it like it was expected.

The Nara leaned against the wall, hands in his pants "you must be pretty confused then. There was a sealing accident. A team of ANBU were called to investigate missing reports near a cave. One of the ANBU was Shikako Nara, my sister" he breathed in carefully "They found that the modified seal was for storing bodies away. They tried to counter it with another seal when it activated. She's a bit of a seal master" Sasuke listened, not giving anything away. Why was he being told this?

"The seal brought you here," the Nara grimaced. "Yamanaka-san saw through your memories and made it clear you weren't our Uchiha. Everything seems to be the same except… where you are from, Shikako never existed. Here she is my twin. She attended the academy and graduated. She was put in Team 7 with Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha under the tutelage of Jounin Kakashi Hatake. Sakura Haruno failed her test and became a medic-nin"

Was he supposed to believe this rubbish? He scowled at the man. He brought out a storage scroll and unsealed a folder. He handed it to him. Sasuke didn't touch it. The Nara just muttered troublesome and left it on the bed.

"Tsunade-sama has agreed to release you from T&I, with the condition that you are under guard at all times," Shikamaru raised an eyebrow and his eyes flickered to Orochimaru's seal. Sasuke wanted to put his hand over it. "I told her I would take you in. Don't look at me like that. Sasuke is my sister's teammate and you're kind of him. It's troublesome, but she would have done it." He gestured at the folder. "Look over it. I will be back in an hour to get you."

The man closed the door behind him. Sasuke reached out to the folder after a few minutes. There was a team picture with him in it. Kakashi was standing behind them. A girl was on the middle and Naruto was on the other side. She looked like a female version of Shikamaru. Her hair was braided behind her, and her arms were crossed looking shy but with an edge of steel at the camera. The next one was of the three of them sitting playing shogi with Kakashi behind him. Them at the Ramen stand. Naruto looking haughty with a chunin vest. He scoffed at that one. He, himself was smirking at the blond and the girl was grinning at them. Another of them in cat ears. He grimaced remembering that mission. All of the Konoha 12 together. Ino, Sakura, and the Nara standing together. Sakura wearing medic-nin scrubs. Him and the girl wearing chunin vests holding cups up in a toast arms around each other with Kakashi holding his cup smiling behind them. They continued on and on. They were growing in each picture, looking older. The last one made him stop. It was Team Seven again together at the gate. Naruto had his arms thrown around them, all of them laughing and so so happy. He looked like the young man he had seen before. He looked down at his body. Was it truly him? He had just seen Naruto, Ino, and Shikamaru?

He looked at the grinning Uchiha again. Was this truly him had he stayed in Konoha? He couldn't ever imagine himself looking that happy. Scratch that. He couldn't imagine himself smiling at all after That Man. The papers were proofs of graduation, Chunin, and Jounin examinations. Some were mission reports written by him.

He took it all in. He didn't believe it just yet. Another world? No. It sounded ridiculous. A voice in his mind whispered, Is it really so far-fetched? Sasuke stomped on that and ignored it.

There was a knock on the door and Shikamaru came in again.

"Ready? Have you decided if you want to go?" Shikamaru knew his decision already. Nobody stayed in T & I for longer than necessary unless they worked there. "Here. Naruto brought your clothes. Your assigned jacket and headband." They didn't belong to him, he read under the lines "Most people know, but not all. We are to keep this quiet." The last he said with an edge of steel. He followed the man out after putting them on. He got lost again until they arrived at a door that led to an office. Ibiki, Tsunade, Naruto, Ino, and Kakashi were there. Naruto was grinning at him, Kakashi was looking at him with a sharp eye. As always, his Jounin-sensei was inscrutable to him.

The hokage came forward frowing "Brat. I wouldn't let you out if not because I know what you were told the seal would do, but Inoichi-san gave me a report. You will be under watch of Shikamaru. Any attempts to leave your guard or suspicious activity will have you back in here under a second. This time your stay will not be nice." She said seriously and he nodded. "Yes, Hokage-sama." She said, looking pointedly at him.

"Yes, Hokage-sama" he repeated with a sneer.

"Just when you think he couldn't get worse," Tsunade said muttering before walking out.

"We're going to stay with Naruto for tonight. I need to tell my mother about Shikako and then we will move to the Nara clan house," then Shikamaru started moving in the approximate speed of a snail. His shoulders were slumped.

Naruto came forward and smacked him in the back. "Lighten up chibi-Sasuke, it could be worse. You could be stuck in Kiba's body." The blond started guffawing.

NMNMNMNM

Well. It's been going great. Thanks for all the reviews! Lady Hallen loves the ones that say you cried the most.

Conversation excerpt:

*talking about ideas*

Fragile W: because even if a saw a glimpse and totally erased it from my brain it still filters through.

Lady Hallen: Yep! Brain Storage?

Fragile W: been reading too much Sherlock. And my memory is like an Iphone 12 gigs. Not worth for shit.

Lady: I think your brain is the diamond found in the shit.

(sarcastic) Fragile W: That's beautiful. It should go straight into a hallmark card.

Lady: So we're having a hallmark moment lol.

Fragile W: Yeah. Your brain is a diamond from shit too.


	17. General Chapter 16

**Warning: Angst. Conspiracy theories. Flashbacks. More angst.**

* * *

 **Confirmation** **  
** **by: Lady Hallen**

* * *

Shikamaru found Naruto in the market, carrying so much groceries that he had two clones following behind him to help. The tripled amount of orange was annoying but he had to deal with it.

"Naruto," he said.

The blonde jerked in surprise, before turning around with a grin. "Shika! Hi!" he looked so pleased that he practically vibrated in place. The blond's energy exhausted him. He would prefer to send Kiba his way like when he needed something instead of having to interact but…

"Can I talk to you?" he asked.

Naruto nodded, speeding through the line and dropping an envelope with the Hokage's seal on it for payment. The cashier's face was sour.

"Watcha wanna talk about?" he asked. The clones followed behind, having the same curious expressions.

Shikamaru's mind flashed back to the picture in a box, with a baby dress. There was no one listening to their conversation "I want to talk to her," he said. _I need to talk to her_ , he wanted to say.

The confusion in the blonde's face cleared a little. "Oh! You're her twin brother in her world, aren't you? She told me so."

His gut clenched. "She said that?" he asked. He hoped his face didn't look as desperate as he felt.

Naruto nodded, though he looked concerned. "Yup. Shikako-chan said that when she got hurt, her brother would get really angry."

He tried to imagine it, having a twin. A younger sister that would look to him for comfort. He clenched his hands. His imagination cursed him, because he could easily imagine it. He hated the flash of jealousy that came over him. Jealousy for himself. How stupid.

"But," Naruto continued. "I'm not allowed to bring anyone with me. Tsunade-baachan said she would make me do D-ranks until I was a Jounin. And there's like, ANBU everywhere, especially since Shikako-chan got stabbed by this asshole guy."

"What?" he asked.

Naruto nodded. "Yup. Shikako-chan punched him in the face though, the guy was pretending to be an ANBU, kind of like…Haku from my first mission…anyway! They're using it as evidence or something."

They were headed in the direction of the Uchiha compound. _Were they housed there?_ He wondered.

"A blank mask," he realized. "an _ANBU_ mask?"

The idiot blithely nodded along like he that wasn't surprising. Maybe to him it wasn't, given his first mission. He thought maybe people could acquire ANBU masks like getting them from the store or stealing them. ANBU were the best of the best.

"Yup," he said. They got to the gates. "Shika, I think you need to stop here. Baa-chan's being really mean about putting them on quarantine. As though that's useful. This Teme is nicer than ours."

He gulped in a lungful of air. "Right," he mustered. "Alright. But, can you tell her I want to meet her?"

Naruto glanced at his face. It was impassive. Thankfully, his hands were clenched inside his pants pocket. He had to keep some of his composure.

"Sure," Naruto said easily. "I can tell she's missing home. She keeps working on seals to bring both of them home."

Naruto _drooped_. He looked a bit depressed at the thought of their guests leaving. Shikamaru wanted to punch him. _What right do you have to meet her and be happy?_ he thought. _What about me?_

He carefully places that thought to the side for further examination. It wasn't like him to be acting so irrationally.

"I think you'll have to ask for permission," Naruto continued. "But Shikako-chan will be happy to see you. She's really nice, you'll see."

Shikamaru nodded. He couldn't be sure that his voice would stay steady if he spoke.

* * *

Training with Team 10 passed in a blur. Unfortunate, since it was the first team training since Chouji got out of the hospital.

Ino was annoyed with him and Chouji kept patting his hand, as though to bring him back to the present. Asuma-sensei understood though. He took one look at his face and set him to jogging, a ' _nice_ _physical activity_ _that didn't need much brain power'_. He still tripped over lose rocks, so maybe that's what worried the rest of his team.

"Shikamaru!" Ino finally sighed, exasperated. "What is with you today?"

Chouji was quiet. Asuma-sensei gave him a look over her shoulder. It was up to him to tell her. The Hokage hadn't issued a gag order about their otherworldly guests (to the ones who knew), but it was implied, they weren't supposed to discuss it. But Ino would understand anyway, as would Chouji.

"Chouji," he said. "Do you remember that kunoichi who showed up at that mission?" he said.

 _That mission_. He flicked dark eyes at them and knew they knew what he meant.

"Yeah," Chouji said slowly. "She was the ANBU, without a mask and saved me from consuming more than one pill."

Both of them shivered, remembering the desperate fight. Leaving behind genin to fight Orochimaru's best experiments.

Shikamaru remembered hiding behind trees and trying not to fall into against Tayuya. The fight had been brutal and annoying. Especially her summons. He'd been inches away from getting himself impaled and then Tayuya had exploded.

An ANBU, _Shikako Nara_ , had just slammed a hand on Tayuya, after kicking the ass of her summons with a brutal taijutsu style, and ink had blossomed from under her hand. She'd looked around, found him so easily even if he was hiding, and smiled.

"Are you alright, Shikamaru?" she'd asked. "You look terrible."

He'd slumped against the tree. "Troublesome women," he'd grouched.

She laughed but gone on her way when fight sounds had filtered through the woods. He'd been thankful his fellow ninja had backup. _Thank Kami_. He had picked up Chouji and gone to the village.

He should have made her stay. Maybe talked to her? He should have made her stop, even for a moment.

"She's, apparently from another world," he managed, brought back to the present by Ino's warm hand on his wrist. "And from there, she's my twin."

Ino blinked, she'd heard it from someone else too. "But, you don't have a twin here," she said. She looked like she wanted him to have a twin too.

"No," he said and his own voice sounded distant to his ears. "Here, I had a twin."

That she died was an implication that both of his teammates worked out after a moment. He didn't want to say it out loud.

"How young was she when…" Ino couldn't continue. Chouji placed a hand on her shoulder.

Asuma-sensei interrupted. Thankfully, or else Shikamaru would have screamed.

"She died when the Kyuubi attacked," sensei said.

"Oh," Ino murmured.

Chouji spoke. "Are you meeting her?"

Sensei interrupted again. Perhaps something with his face? All of them looked worried. "We're waiting for Shikaku-san. To confirm that it's really her."

Shikamaru didn't need his father's confirmation that it was her. He wasn't a sensor like Ino, but he'd felt her chakra that day. It felt like the warmth of the earth, wind on a sunny day and a steady, beating thing that resonated with his.

He knew she was real.

* * *

 **Writing this chapter was harder than pulling teeth and reading the finished product was more satisfying than looking at freshly baked cookies.**

 **Lady: Then...gaara or Shikaku?**

 **F. Wishes: Shikaku. we need balance.**

 **Lady: Wait, Shikaku angsty or Shikaku crack. There is two of them waiting, you know. From different worlds**

 **F. wishes: God. Chibi names help with the others but not grown ups. Let's call them Canons.**

 **Lady: okay so DOS Shikaku then?**

~~ trying to keep all the strings tied is tiring...


	18. General Chapter 17

**Return of the Hound**  
 **by: Fragile Wishes**

* * *

Kakashi is standing in the office with Tsunade. He feels a little broken.

 _Please, no. You promised_

Team 7's number one rule was no dying, and they had promised. Sasuke was under the tender mercy of Ibiki, with the probability that Orochimaru had bypassed the seal restrictions and Shikako was MIA. ANBU who went 'missing' were never seen again. Who had taken her? What had happened to Sasuke?

He puts the report back down and Tsunade looks regretful. What had he been thinking? He should have never recommended them for ANBU.

"It wasn't your fault Kakashi"

He doesn't believe it for a second.

"I want to be part of the investigation" he says coldly.

"This is an ANBU investigation. You are in downtime" She said forcefully. She doesn't want him to see the cave. Doesn't want him to be there in case Shikako's body is found there. He pushes past the thought of his student laying on the ground with a vacant look on her face.

"There is no one in the village with more Seal experience than I. I won't leave this in an amateur's hands!" He leans back, not expecting the sudden noise explosion from himself.

"Calm down, Hatake" She puts a hand on her forehead. He doesn't forget that Shikako is also her student. "You will accompany Dove and her squad to the site again. Ibiki will have your mask ready at the headquarters" She stands up, eyes looking wet, but she doesn't cry. He kneels in the customary ANBU fashion and then exits through the window. He knows why she didn't put him as a Captain. He is not expected to be completely rational about his students. He's not sure he trusts himself not to destroy anyone who is responsible for his students…misfortunes.

* * *

He dons his mask while Ibiki stares. He isn't Kakashi Hatake anymore; he is Hound.

"The blood matches and so does the Sharingan" The man says talking about Sasuke. They stare through the camera at the young man sitting on the bed. The face of his student pulls in unfamiliar way. The Uchiha had grown leaps and bounds. He has one of the most renowned ninja of Konoha. Had their work been for nothing?

Dove signals him and they leave.

He can feel the heaviness in the surrounding area and the air smells like natural Chakra. He can see the tells on the surrounding area. The plants look weak and none grow near the entrance.

Dove signals him to lead and 2 ANBU stay behind to watch the perimeter. They mute their chakra even more and enter the cave, the civilian flashlight pointing forward.

The cave has a long passage. It takes plenty of time getting anywhere. He needs to check everything. The passage leads into an open chamber.

:TRAP: He says gesturing to a little hidden seal between the passage and the chamber. He would have disregarded it if he had not been looking for it. DOVE signals back. His message has come across and she doesn't follow further in.

It takes hours but he manages to make the seal unravel without activating it. He doesn't understand much of it. It's too complicated. He does understand some things.

 _Non-organic_ and _storage_

His stomach clenches. What had Deer done? She would have recognized it in a second after activation. Sasuke had not been himself. What had she done to shield them? Was her body trapped in the seal? Had she only been able to save Sasuke? How?

There is a little click and he turns around to see Dove.

:PAPER: She signals. He stands up carefully, and allows the seal to go back into its dormant form. There is a crack on the wall. He slowly pulls out the torn paper. It's Shikako's work but he also recognizes something else. The flow of how the seal is set up is very similar to a seal he'd recognize anywhere. His sensei's Flying Thunder God Technique. It's completely different but the little details are there.

His student had been trying to recreate the technique? Were had she even gotten the seal from? He wanted to sigh. He knew she had the propensity to take interesting things with her…but this. The last time a Kunai had been found had been years ago, and she had definitely not even heard of it.

He slowly returned to Dove putting the seal away. Her head went a bit sideways in question.

:FOUND?:

:NO: but he gestured at the pocket with the seal :POSSIBLE: :EVADE:

She nodded and followed him out again. Shikako had tried to teleport them. The seal was ripped but it had been activated at one point. Then why was Sasuke acting like he was clueless? Why was he here but not Shikako? He hoped Jiraya would be called back promptly by Tsunade. This needed a Seal Master.

* * *

 **Fragile Wishes says: "I don't give a s*** if it's OC.**

 **Well, I say that I care if it's grammatically wrong, I'm just the type to take note of it and then edit it when everything is finally done. I don't like going back again and again to redo something..**

 **You can, sorta, note what our priorities are. (sweatdrop)**

 **The essence of it though, is that we want to have fun. Tools and a*** don't get a say. (We really must be the type to give editors work.)**

 **Please R & R.**

 **~Hallen**


	19. General Chapter 18

**Observation**  
 **by: Lady Hallen**

* * *

Shikaku went still.

"What?" he asked softly, mildly.

The unfortunate shinobi that had given him the report looked terrified. He was paler than the stacks of paper by Shikaku's desk.

"Nara Shikako, sir," he repeated. "Went missing in action at 0900 hours yesterday. The rest of her team recovered Uchiha Sasuke, who went in to investigate their mission with her. But, he's not acting himself sir."

He straightened up from his slouch. That seemed to terrify the man even further. Shikaku paid him no mind. He reached for a stray piece of paper and wrote a note on it. He wasn't going to ask his old friend to come out of retirement, but to be on stand-by.

"You'll give this to Yamanaka Inoichi," he said. "He'll be found in the Yamanaka Flower Shop. Give it only to him."

The man gulped. "Yessir." He sunshined so fast that he almost looked like he was running away.

Shikaku sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. As always, his daughter was the troublesome one. Always, always her. If there is an explosion, Shikaku automatically thought of her causing it. Or her teammate.

He stood up and headed to T & I. Despite how… _calmly_ and _slowly_ he walked, everybody gave him a wide berth. The unfortunate underling carrying paperwork tall enough to impede his eyesight was hastily pulled to the side by another underling.

"Well?" he asked Ibiki, who was musing over the screen monitor, observing the behavioral patterns of Sasuke Uchiha.

Ibiki took one look at his face and smirked. "No wonder the hallway is so quiet," he rumbled. He looked back at the screen. "For all intents and purposes, he's a different person. He's suspicious, doesn't speak much and acts like an anti-social git. Our Uchiha, from what I've managed to unearth from his ANBU assessment, makes sarcastic comments when pressed. This one just…sneers."

A different person.

"What does the hospital report?" Shikaku asked.

Ibiki sighed. "It's still being reworked three times, mostly because Anko doesn't believe it."

"What?" Shikaku said. It's a demand.

"It says Uchiha Sasuke. Perfect match," Ibiki looked up to meet his eyes. "Everytime."

His mind worked. A body with the perfect match to the DNA records of Uchiha Sasuke. Different mannerisms, different facial expressions.

"A different soul?" he managed. It was far-fetched, but so was their recent mission with Uzumaki that said something about Time travel.

Ibiki looked perplexed. "I suppose so. Or a different mind? Perhaps an emotional breakdown, a different personality taking over?"

"No," another voice interrupted. "A different personality would still retain memories of the original."

Shikaku turned to see Inoichi there. He looked unruffled, even if the Flower Shop was several blocks away.

"I didn't tell you to come here," he said to his old friend. "You didn't have to."

Inoichi smiled at him. "Your note conveyed your distress. So I had to."

They look back to the screen. The Uchiha didn't touch the food, only the energy bar. _Sealed food._

"He doesn't trust us," Inoichi remarked. "Something…strange is going on here."

His daughter was missing and his daughters' teammate was distressingly distrustful of Konoha ninja. Inoichi really had the talent for understatement.

 **Okay, so this is what people are calling serious crack. Funny but serious too. (Mostly to give your hearts a break from weeping. There will be a lot more angst, I tell you. The previous ones were just the tip of the iceberg.)**

 **Thanks for all the support you lot. Remember, any other crossworlds you want to write, we're here to publish it. It's all about Switch for this fic.**

 **Please R & R.**

 **~Hallen and Fragile Wishes**


	20. General Chapter 19

Warnings: ANBU assessment of their otherworldly guest, and Gaara's strange logic.

* * *

 **Demands and Answers  
By: Lady Hallen**

* * *

 _Current Location: Canon World, Hokage Tower_

"Come in, Gaara" Tsunade said already wanting to have a bottle on hand. Gaara of the Sand asking for an audience without his whole team. She just knew she was going to regret something.

Gaara came in. He held his hands loosely, face carefully blank. His siblings were all busy. Temari with the academy and Kankuro with his puppet.

Gaara didn't want to appear a threat, but that was difficult since he was a Jinchuriki. His very existence was a weapon.

"How can I help you?" she asked

She looked weary. The kid looked sane now, but he had just recently been trying to kill everyone in sight.

"That girl" he rasped and she wanted to sigh "I want to talk to her"

He casted his mind back to how they met, his sand sweeping in and ready to deal with the hostile ninja, only to find his first friend (his first one) yelling at Sasuke Uchiha and the ANBU. Naruto had not recognized her, but she wore a Konoha headband. His sand didn't reach for her. Kimimaru had given one last attack he had used his sand to shield everyone.

And then she had looked at him and her eyes hadn't been alarmed. They had been surprised and pleasured… _to see him?_

Then Naruto had kept yelling at them regardless that Gaara and his team had just showed up. The girl and Uchiha kept talking about seals and a cave. Naruto had dragged it out of them. No one had believed them until they had met Tsunade at the gate. She hadn't recognized the girl either. A couple of hand seals had made Tsunade stop her almost attack. They had been sent to different meeting rooms then.

"Why should I let you?" The Hokage asked testily.

"She told us where she came from" he said "and I want to meet her" Tsunade scowled at him. She knew she was being blackmailed.

She pursed her lips but dragged a paper from her desk. "I think you know what this is."

He came forward and sat on the chair when she gestured for him to do so. A confidentiality contract. Knowledge getting out by his hand would mark him as a traitor to Konoha. She knew what this would do. His village would forsake him. An alliance with Konoha was more valuable than a former psychotic Jinchuuriki. He knew that's how people described him and village was still wary of him and he couldn't blame them.

He read over it and signed it. Her eyebrow raised but she took it back signed it and put it in her drawer again.

"Kakashi is scheduled to meet with her tomorrow and Naruto will be there" the Hokage said. Her mouth turned down is displeasure at having Naruto in close contact with her. What was Naruto doing? Meeting with her if the Hokage didn't trust her? Information, clearly.

"You won't ask anything that does not regard you. Kakashi will be there at all times. Understood?"

Her patience was running out. She was letting him meet her because she wanted information too. He wanted to see her reactions to Gaara. He nodded and stood up.

"Good. Now get out of my sight" She waved him away, but not spitefully.

MNMNMNNM

"Gaara? Where did you go today?" Temari asked pointedly. Gaara had not been away from his siblings since they had come to the village. They were on a village they had recently attacked, and he had left her in the academy.

Gaara turned to look at her, she looked weary. Their relationship was getting better though. She no longer flinched when he spoke to her, or when he looked at her.

"Are you going to see her?" Temari asked when he didn't respond. He nodded, there was only one _her_ that mattered.

"Yes," he said simply. She gripped her fan. "And we are not going with you"

"No." he said staring at her. She was looking,,, _worried_ ….for him? "Naruto is going to be there."

She let out a groan. "Are you at least going to tell us what she says?"

"No," he said again."The Hokage forbade me"

Temari looked like she wanted to yell at him but was holding back by biting her tongue. For a person who had recently been wary of angering him, Temari could certainly _shout_ at him once she got worried. Kankuro had once explained it as mothering instincts. He'd answered that she wasn't old enough to be a mother. Kankuro had laughed.

What would she tell him? Naruto had given him the answer to strength. That to protect was to be powerful. To work for the strength to preserve life instead of ending life.

That was part of the reason why it had been so difficult for him to understand at first, and he'd only really _listened_ once he'd gotten a head butt. What was the purpose of preserving life?, he'd wondered. And then his siblings, who were estranged and only vaguely acquaintances, did their best to protect him, even at the expense of their own bodies, their own health.

Temari had gone against the council to not have him executed. Kankuro took care of the assassins that had gone after him, allowing him time to meditate, his version of sleeping.

He'd learned and he was grateful to his friend.

This one, who looked at him like he was not a monster, was _interesting_.

He would get his answers tomorrow.

With barely a whisper, his sand took him to the roof and he meditated under the light of the moon.

* * *

 **Gaara's ... different to write. His thought processes just don't seem to do what other people do...**

 **Just to state it, he's plain damn weird.**

 **~Hallen**


	21. General Chapter 20

**Possibilities**

 **by: Fragile Wishes**

* * *

 _Current Location: Canon World, Uchiha District_

The doors opened before Gaara could make his presence known. Hatake-san was waiting for him at the porch of a house. He looked like he didn't even notice Gaara was standing there, the man was probably confident he could kill the Jinchuuriki, and Gaara didn't doubt it that the man could achieve it if he wanted to.

Compared to the sounds of the village, this part was eerily quiet. Even at nights when all of Suna was asleep, the sounds of the living filtered through. The houses in the Uchiha clan looked clean and kept. But it looked abandoned. It was abandoned. There were no children running around, no old ladies watering their plants, and no people walking around. He could almost imagine them living here. Everyone had heard of the Uchiha Massacre. He had seen some people from Suna celebrating the fact, and others whispering worriedly about it (bloodlines being killed in Mist and Konoha. Who was next?).

"Tsunade-sama said you'd be coming." Hatake said standing but not looking up from his book.

He nodded at the man and followed him. He didn't care that the Jounin walked deliberately slowly. His eyes didn't leave the book, but Gaara felt watched. He is always being watched.

He heard Naruto's screech of laugher from far away and then…

"No fair!"

He still can't imagine how a Jinchuuriki who was hated by a whole village can smile and can believe in protecting people. But Gaara had seen the blond. He's seen it and he had felt the truth in his heart.

{Line break}

She felt Gaara's chakra approaching. It felt different… less refined than what she remembers the Kazekage's being, but it was probably the age difference.

She smirked as she got to pop Kakashi-sensei's clone. The clone just crossed its arms in an exaggerated pout and dissipated when she touched him on the arm. It looked funny over a mask.

"Everything is fair, Naruto" She said. Sasuke pointed out an open piece to Naruto and he took it gleefully.

"Hah! In your face- …Gaara!"

Naruto abandoned his place as the Hokage and ran to the Sand Genin with a grin as soon as he saw the red head. The robes flapped behind him and the hat moved around.

Gaara's eyes were sharp as he watched Naruto, who put his arms behind his head and dropped the transformation jutsu of the robes blushing.

"We were just playing Shogi the Fun Way," He says, as if that was the only explanation needed. Kakashi stared at all the clones. A few copies of him were on the playing field too, one even going as far as to henge an orange Icha Icha book. There was another Shikamaru on the ground with a fire headband completely refusing to play. Naruto loved henging to the 'characters'. She smiled. This was just like when she was teaching him back when they were Jounin. Now Naruto could hold out on his own for a while.

"Ah" Kakashi said as if disinterested. "Gaara just wanted to talk to Shikako-san before he leaves for Suna."

Shikako walked forward, Sasuke coming to her side too. It was weird that Kakashi would add a _san_ after their names, but she could guess he was trying to keep some distance.

Gaara just looked like he did, his eyes not shifting. But He'd stopped being so intimidating to her after she saw him play with the children in the Academy. It's just difficult to factor in a scary Gaara with a Gaara trying to pick out glitter in his sand patiently.

"Hello, Gaara" She said carefully when he didn't speak. This Gaara doesn't know her. He had eventually stopped being so quiet (she'd gone to Suna as an ambassador more than once), but this was a bit familiar.

The shadow clones start popping as Naruto loses interest in the game, leaving the field empty.

"Is it possible?" He asked simply after a few awkward seconds. She realized that she was still wearing the transformation jutsu of the Kazekake robes and hat. It's a bit embarrassing, so she dropped it. Gaara was still staring intently, waiting.

"Yes," She says simply after considering it. This is what he had come here for after all. What was a push in the right direction? Gaara was not a person to slack off because he knew something could be achieved. It just…gave him momentum.

"What is?" Naruto asked loudly looking between them "What you talking about?"

"Ah. That's for Gaara to know" She teases him. Gaara's eyes are a bit wide in surprise. He wanted it, and he would achieve it. Hearing it was still a surprise, clearly.

"You" he didn't continue. He doesn't know what to say. Then he continues after all "You were there during the invasion?" _Has the other Gaara done horrible things? Did people also mistrust and hate him?_

It's not her who answers, but Sasuke. "We were" he nods "and we're friends" he says a little bit defensively. Like daring someone to call him on being kind.

Shikako almost wants to hug her friend. Sasuke had been lonely at one time too. Kakashi was watching them sharply and maybe he knew what they were talking about.

It's sensei. _He knew._

Gaara's looks away from her eyes, like he's processing the information. Naruto has no idea what they are talking about but he knows that expression.

"And now we can all be friends! Right Shikako-neesan?"

She smiled brightly "Of course, Naruto" She said putting a hand on his shoulder.

Gaara stays to watch the game at Naruto's insistence. Kakashi even pipes up eventually when his clone is in the line to be popped. His eyes move sharply around the field. He points out her strategies but eventually Shikako starts running them over.

"Naruto, can I borrow your clones for the next game?" Kakashi says when the match is concluded in Shikako's favor. Not really surprising, given that she'd been playing Naras for years.

"Are you sure you want to play against a Nara?" she asks grinning, because if she had been taught something well, it was playing Shogi as one.

* * *

 **300 Folllows. Woahhhhh**

F. Wishes: almost 300 follows. Omake time?

Lady: omake time. Which character this time then?

F. Wishes: umm…

Lady: I'll just throw some names around and you pick one

*5 minutes later*

F. Wishes: Yosh! Let's show some love to Kankuro & sand team

* * *

 **Omake: Truth is stranger than fiction**

"Kazekage-sama, a message arrived from Konoha. Shikako-san won't be able to come as the ambassador. She had a sealing accident during a mission"

Gaara's hands stilled from signing the next paper. Kankuro backed away a little bit when the killing intent rose in the room. The sand made sounds as it slithered in the ground.

"What?" He said carefully, making the Jounin swallow.

"What did she do? Briefly become a Kami again? What can be worse than that?" Kankuro said looking up at the ceiling. Another accident!? Again?

"That was a bad joke, Kankuro!" Temari said smacking his head.

Gaara pinched his nose "get out or keep quiet, both of you. Is she in the hospital?" looking ready to fly to Konoha on his sand.

"Well…she was missing at first, but she has been found healthy…she's just kind of stuck somewhere else and they don't know how to get her back?" The Jounin said sheepishly.

Kakuro sighted "explain so that it makes sense, yeah?"

"Techinically they found her…in another world" The Jounin said like he couldn't believe he was saying that. Everybody stared.

"Damn, Sparky" Kankuro muttered "That's a new one. All you need is time-traveling and you'll be all set for weird missions"

The Jounin shuffled.

"Well…actually…"

"What?" Gaara demanded, a flat stare on his face.

"Ah…she kind of landed after the chunin exams…the first one" He finished not looking into Gaara's eyes. Yeah the first one. No one liked to remember his psychotic murderer days.

"What were you saying Kankuro?" commented Temari looking at her nails.

"Nevermind" The puppeteer said "she's part of team 7, should have known it was some freaky shit. Nope. That one can hog all the weird shit going on"

 **And this is what happens when we message each other back and forth. Stuff like this comes out lol**

 **Fragile dreams.**

* * *

 **Reviewer Shinonome Sakuya asks:**

 _Is there Shikaara on Switch? Is that why Shikako was so happy that Gaara was there or is it purely platonic?_

Well, she arrived and just saw Chibi-Gaara ^.^" who's gourd looks a bit too big for him. As for DOS switch. Hah! Well….maybe you'll find out…maybe you won't.

 _Floatingmangocake says:_

 _Waaa…Gaara-sama so cool~_

Well, Fragile Dreams agrees *Squeeee*

* * *

 **Things to come : Conversation Excerpt** _ **Redacted**_

F Wishes: He/She dies

Lady: That's dramatic. More plot settled though

F Wishes: everyone is going to hate us

Lady: Notoriety is just another type of fame.

 **And we're ruthless….**


	22. General Chapter 21

Co-written ;D can you figure out who wrote each part?

* * *

 **Imperfect Mirror and Karma**

* * *

 _Current Location: D.O.S. World_

Sasuke followed a chattering Naruto through Konoha. No one paid them any particular attention, until they got to the markets. A few people would bow to Naruto…no, to them.

' _Sasuke-san_ ' a woman had bowed to him and handed him an orange from her stand. Throwing a fake scowl at Naruto's pout, before throwing one to the blond and Shikamaru too. She had told him that her son was in good health now, tearing up as she thanked him profusely.

"Oh! Don't mind him Oba-san! Sasuke-chan is just embarrassed" Naruto had said grinning, as he peeled his hard-earned fruit. He had bowed back shallowly when Shikamaru gestured him to, too surprised to say no.

He didn't even protest when Naruto took his orange too. What kind of life was the other Sasuke living? People waved to them as they went by. Respect. They were showing respect to them. It reminded him of how they had treated Itachi at one time…

They arrived at a house that was in a nice neighborhood. There were medicinal plants outside everywhere, a picnic bench, and a swing.

"Welcome! Team 7 shares this house!" Naruto said grinning before putting his hand on a seal, the door clicked open "Sasuke and me stay here all the time, and Shikako has a room but only stays over sometimes!"

He felt Shikamaru watching his expression, waiting for reactions. He blanked out his face but, it was hard to remain like that. Signs of them living here were everywhere. The living room was full of pictures too. The Konoha 12, Kakashi and the other Jounin, the Hokage, the Naras, and a few people he didn't know. A sword was hanging on the wall with an Uchiha sign. A poster of Ramen that had been taken down and put up many times, evidenced by its wrinkled nature. A game of Shogi on a table that was half finished.

He could never imagine himself sharing a house with Naruto and Sakura. _Never_.

Naruto got a piece of the shogi set and put it in his pocket before grinning at him again.

"Shikako was playing against Kakashi-sensei before. Shikako is going to win again."

Shikamaru scoffed and came to the table, scrutinizing the pieces. "7 more moves" he said simply "I'm going to go talk to my mother. Troublesome" He gave a warning look to Sasuke. "Behave" Sasuke glared. He wasn't a dog. Shikamaru pointed at Naruto. "You too. Don't do anything…Naruto-like". He sighed and then moved to the door.

Naruto dragged him to a room "This is where you are going to stay tonight. Our own's Sasuke's room," the blond gestured grandly. "You probably won't be able to open anything but the closet. Last time I tried.." Naruto shuddered "Just don't do it, it took forever to undo- anyway!"

He dragged him back out.

"So Chibi-Sasuke? Ichiraku's? I'm supposed to feed you" He put a hand on his chin and then his eyes widened in horror. "There is an Ichikaru's were you are from! Right? right!?"

* * *

Kakashi watched as Sasuke was dragged by the arm by Naruto, the other too surprised by a grown Naruto (and he had no chakra anyway) to pull away. Well, he tried a few times before giving up.

He followed along with the rest of the ANBU guard. He didn't doubt that a Root agent had made it through to it. He'd have to be on guard constantly. _Sigh._ And he had been hoping to read his Icha Icha in peace.

Shikaku really had to buy him a drink. Jiraya was thankfully on his way back now, after sending an angry rant about getting into stupid situations. He didn't blame the man, this was a bit ridiculous. Two seals clashing and landing Shikako and Sasuke in another world? Only Team 7. _They were definitely cursed_.

He tried to imagine what the other people thought of them. What they thought of Shikako. He only hoped that they were safe and not in T&I – he shook his head and watched Naruto throw an arm over Sasuke in the booth. The blond really was trying hard to please Sasuke. He had been devastated when he had found out Sasuke had deflected and that Shikako didn't exist in the other world.

Two days ago he had been on the other side of the glass watching Inoichi mind-walk Sasuke. He had felt his stomach rolling in nausea. The more you fought against that jutsu the more it hurt, and he had definitely been fighting it. He had thrown up at one time, tears streaming down his eyes, but not crying.

He hoped he would never have to see his student in that position ever again.

* * *

Shikaku hulked behind Ibiki, his usual demeanor of bored and lazy flickering with worry and vaguely concealed anger.

Hound reported and kept his eyes off the very scary Jounin Commander with some practice. Peripherally, he was aware of the commander in case he decided to move his hands to his kunai pouch or do some hand seals. He had destroyed a room already.

Actually, being in the commander's presence was scary enough, to be reporting with him in the background about his _missing daughter_ was something else in the frightening spectrum. In fact, it probably exceeded the spectrum altogether and went over to the next plane of terrifying.

Hound hated his life. It had to be one of his students.

"Well?" Ibiki said. He was being less formal about it, but his eyes were stuck on the hospital report.

"Two seals were found in the cave," he said. "One had the properties of a storage seal, but it was largely indecipherable. The other one, I know, has the flight markings of a transport seal, particularly, the Hiraishin seal. It's in Deer Captain's handwriting."

Both men _stared_ , their gaze weighted and heavy.

"The Hiraishin?" Ibiki asked, incredulous. The report in his hands is forgotten. "Where on earth would she have gotten one to study it?"

"When did she have the time?" Shikaku wondered, thinking back to the missions, trainings with her team, ANBU training and suchlike. Some days, Shikako even forgot to comb her hair.

The Commander pinched the bridge of his nose when Ibiki turned to him with a flat stare. The look said, _She's your daughter_. Shikako was only ever _his daughter_ when she got in trouble. He wondered what that said about him.

"There were no bodies," Hound continued. "There is a chance that she is still alive. The two seals were in close proximity with each other and the paper was half charred, it was used"

Ibiki frowned and on his face it looked like a ferocious scowl that could crack mirrors. "Is it possible they escaped the activation zone? They clashed?"

Shikaku stood up. "I'm sending for Jiraiya immediately" He walked out without his customary slouch. Seeing the Commander acting so serious was as frightening as seeing Ibiki smile.

The T & I Head gestured and Hound removed his mask, becoming Kakashi again within two blinks. He breathed out and tucked the porcelain mask into his belt.

"Tell me Kakashi," Ibiki said, folding his hands on the table. "What do you think happened?"

It went unsaid that with Jiraiya so far away and with Shikako missing, the next person in the village who knew seals was Kakashi. Studying under the Fourth Hokage made everybody assume so anyway. Kakashi's brand of genius when he was younger was that terrible things happened when he was bored. The Yondaime must have been a saint to keep him occupied while at the same time pacing what he learned.

"I think the Seal on the cave activated," Kakashi mused. "And that Shikako tried to transport them away. But something went wrong – the transportation seal can't be anything but experimental, I haven't seen her every practice it, I _would_ have noticed that– I think they got … _displaced."_

The frown deepened and was now the sort to crack stone. Big ones. Most probably boulders. "Define displaced."

Kakashi sighed, rolling his shoulders to work out the kinks in it. "I'm not a master of fuinjutsu in any way," he said. "But I can read some of the script. There was no anchoring part of the transport seal and given that it got charred, it's likely that it affected their landing. _Where_ they would go to is a question. So: displaced."

Ibiki rubbed his nose irritably. "Go away. I wonder why I even bother asking you. You always make my head hurt when you open your mouth," he grumbled.

Kakashi sunshined away with a smirk, though it didn't last long. He thought of his students and wondered why Team 7 always drew the short end of the stick and _what_ he did in his last life that made him deserve a team with such terrible karma.

He'd always hold that it was karma. Because really, everything that happened to his team couldn't possibly be _all their_ fault.

* * *

 **You lot have probably read through enough of this story to guess who wrote what and who tweaked where. Our writing styles aren't that different, it's just that we have different things we focus on.**

 **So! Announcements!**

 **Fragile Wishes is starting classes today. Whatever chapter we update after this are surplus chapters we wrote when we got too excited and bounced chapters back and forth, excitement leeching off each other.**

 **Where was I going with this?**

 **Ah, right. Updates are going to be on Sundays and Wednesdays. (Any deviation from that will probably be the time difference we have.)**

 **Thanks for your continued support and patronage guys!**

 **~Hallen and**


	23. General Chapter 22

**Kitchen Troubles  
** **By: Lady Hallen**

 _Current Location: Canon world, Uchiha Compound_

* * *

Like all things, it started with Shikako.

To be fair, Sasuke thought it might have been because Naruto suddenly dropped by unexpectedly, not bringing food and not in his scheduled visiting hours at all.

"Hey, Shikako-neechan, what's up?" he asked, very cheerfully.

Sasuke had long since given up on him. Naruto just didn't understand that some people were uncivilized heathens before their cup of coffee.

Shikako didn't even look tired, doing back to back night watches and probably functioning on very little sleep. She was poring over seals tirelessly and single-mindedly, but she didn't even startle at Naruto's sudden arrival being a chakra sensor.

He still didn't understand that either. She was a Nara, where was the laziness? (This was a question he'd asked himself since she became his teammate. It still wasn't answered and it has been _years._ )

"Hi Naruto," Shikako answered offhandedly, still thinking about what she would show Jiraya-sama when he showed up. "I'm working on seals to bring us home." She looked up from her papers, shrugging off the thoughts and finally blinked at him. "Kakashi-sensei is busy?" she deduced. What wasKakashi-sensei the second up to now?

Naruto nodded vigorously. "Lazy bum just poofed! And told me to bother you for something to learn today." His tone finished with, _here I am._

He had long since settled down to sharpening all their weapons. He hunkered down and only realized what a mistake it was to keep himself out of the conversation when it went quiet. He looked up and shivered.

Sasuke felt trepidation slither down his spine when he noticed the look in Shikako's eyes. That look preceded explosions and international incidents. Sometimes, when he was feeling extremely put upon, he dreamt of seeing that look, and an island suddenly exploding.

"Shikako – " he started, but she spoke over him, probably anticipating his objections.

"Naruto," she said firmly. "How would you like to learn how to cook?"

The blood rushed from Sasuke's face. "Don't you dare!" he hissed.

"Cooking!? I already know how to make the food of the gods! I don't need anything else" The blond crossed his arms "I want real training. Not cooking lessons from Sasuke-chan"

 _Damn_ Shikako. She was just screwing with him now….

"You're shorter than me," He pointed out and was completely ignored.

She smirked at him. "But Naruto, Sasuke is the best cook among the three of us. So he ought to teach you the more complicated stuff. I can only manage the basics."

The basics…She cooked with her mom all the time! Just because he could copy anything with his sharingan. Naruto was grinning already.

Oh the horror.

To say that the Naruto of their world was a terrible cook was an understatement. It would be like saying Orochimaru was a little evil. To this day, Sasuke still didn't know how the dobe managed to explode the kitchen when all he was cooking was tonkatsu. (All that entailed was pork cutlets, breadcrumbs and oil.)

 _Wait…_

"You teach him how to make onigiri at least," he said firmly. "The rest I might be able to manage."

Her forehead wrinkled in concern. As it should. Naruto had once managed to set the kitchen on fire when Shikako had forgotten and told him to cook rice for the yakitori she brought from the Akimichi's.

Naruto unsupervised in the kitchen ought to be a deadly weapon of mass destruction. Maybe that was the reason why he liked instant ramen so much. It only involved boiling water and nobody could mess that up. (Ninja's and a katon jutsu, that's all he was saying.)

Naruto whooped and stormed to the kitchen, chattering a mile a minute. Shikako followed behind him with a bemused smile. Sasuke sighed and put aside the weapons in a sealing scroll.

The feeling of impending doom still didn't leave him and he followed with trepidation.

Minutes later, something exploded and flour was everywhere in the kitchen, even the ceiling.

Naruto sneezed.

Sasuke sighed.

Shikako choked on her laughter. "At least we know that using fire on compressed barrels of flour can make an explosion," she managed to say, her voice only slightly wobbly.

Brilliant. As though Shikako needed to know how else to make things explode.

With another sigh and a blurred sequence of hand seals that made the ANBU watching the spectacle sit up and watch, he exhaled a Futon jutsu that swept the dust, flour and everything else out an open window. Understated ninja skills.

As though nothing happened, both of them continued with chopping lessons.

* * *

 **Mercy Of Baal (FW changed her penname) says that, 'Being an adult sucks.'**

 **Lady Hallen says that, 'writing chapters on sleep-deprivation results in chapters like these.' (Points above.)**

 **Reviews are welcomed.**


	24. General Chapter 23

Warnings: Pervy-sage returns. Shenanigans. Seals. Whatever, whatever. I can't do this like Lady.

* * *

 **The Way Back Home  
by: Mercy of Baal**

 _Current location: Naruto Canon_

* * *

"Jiraya-sama."

Shikako bowed to him respectfully even though the man was leering at her. This wasn't _her teacher_ but he was a seal master. Sasuke never understood her patience with the pervert.

"Stop looking at Shikako-neechan like that!"

Neither did Naruto since he kicked him on the shin in anger, but the grin had already dropped in mock disappointment.

Sasuke rolled his eyes and went back to sharpening his sword, washing his hands off the Sannin. He had recently spent a week with Jiraya in the seal chamber of the hospital again. He had enough _Jiraya-ness_ to last him for several years.

"Hmmph! Should have known you were one of those," Jiraya said gesturing to her like he had lost all interest. "Hurry up then, brat. I have places to be." He blushed and giggled. _Right._ Shikako gestured him to the house, leaving Sasuke behind with a reluctant Naruto ('You can't be alone with pervy-Sage!')

After she had activated the privacy seals with permission (to which his eyes had sharpened with interest.), Shikako started unsealing all the notes from her arms under the watchful look.

"A few nights ago someone tried to steal the notes, figured it was better to keep them with me at all times," she explained.

Jiraya didn't even say anything to that, probably knowing exactly what had happened. Tsunade wasn't here, but she knew he would report everything back to her.

"Truth is, I didn't want to involve anyone here," she said, opening the Cave seal and putting little weights to hold it open. "But I think the sooner we leave, the better it will be."

The man started tapping different parts of the seal with his fingers, like trying to decipher it. "And why is that?"

Talking about the Akatsuki could be very bad. Jiraya could decide to keep her for the information she had on them…but she needed his help.

"When we left, there were rumors of _big pieces_ moving against Naruto," She said making him look up her with a glint in his eyes. A little emotional blackmail didn't hurt either. "We have been training for years so he wouldn't have to stand alone," She hesitated before touching a point on her arm "I will give you…intel if you help us get back. Our Naruto needs us."

She unsealed a folder and handed it to him. _Hidan._ It was a show of what she could give to him if he would help her… and it was a bit of selfishness. Even though this wasn't Naruto, it was still undeniably Naruto. This wouldn't only help the blonde, but also the other Jinchuuriki. She had seen Gaara already, but there had been no way to warn him. It was also because this world seemed like the one she remembered. Hidan had killed Asuma-sensei and that wasn't allowed to happen.

Jiraya looked relaxed, but she didn't doubt he was considering taking her in to Interrogation right then and there.

He sighed and put the folder away, like he was already regretting his actions. A little of the weight fell off her shoulders.

"I will help you, but if you event think of hurting the brat I will kill you." She nodded, that was fair, more than fair. "Alright, then. The seal. What did you guys do to counter it?"

He went right into the heart of the matter, and she sheepishly took out the second seal. Her Jiraya would have bashed her head in.

"I tried to transport us with this. It wasn't finished, but we didn't have many options," she said hesitantly.

He studied it and pursed his lips. "By _this_ you mean a seal inspired by the hiraishin. Tsunade said you were good with seals," He deadpanned.

"I didn't think I'd get anywhere…I didn't. I wasn't planning on using it," She defended. She couldn't understand the seal all that much, she had just stolen parts of it, trying to make something work.

"Seals are not for playing around, who taught you?" He asked a bit angrily now. It made her want to hunch her back. Being reprimanded sucked. Especially by a man she respected, even if he was from another world.

"Jiraya-sama did," she said looking down. He was silent for a few seconds before he hit her with a fist on her head. She rubbed it chagrined. Well, she'd expected that…

"Then you should have known better," he gestured to the paper. "I guess it worked on your favor this time." He muttered something about Tsunade keeping things from him.

 _This time._ Like there was going to be another repeat of it. Perhaps he was well acquainted with Team 7's streak of weird missions.

"This is going to take more than a few hours brat," he looked mournful, but grabbed a piece of paper "Alright, tell me what happened, from the beginning."

It seemed he wanted her gone too.

It was nighttime by the time Sasuke signaled he was coming in soon. She rubbed at her eyes and cracked her knuckles. There were notes and designs everywhere. They had gone over all the details she had found out about the seal. She was reminded of how much of a badass Jiraya-sama was at seals and how long she had to go yet.

"You understand what needs to happen right? Without a-" his hands moved in a ' _you understand right?'_ motion _"_ connection to lead us back to your world this isn't happening"

Shikako sighted. Yeah, she had seen it.

"I can't think of any anchors," she rubbed her neck with a hand. "I'll have to think of something."

"You do that" He stood up and stretched "I didn't think I'd ever take on another student. Nara's daughter huh?"

* * *

"What did he say?"

Shikako yawned into her hand "He thinks we have a chance of being able to return," She pursed her lips "Without dying or losing limbs that is"

Sasuke grimaced. "Then why do you look like it's not happening?"

"We need an anchor on the other side," she said. "Without it, we could end up anywhere. Any ideas?"

* * *

We hashed out the plotline about 2 weeks ago. We have an ending and a beginning. So about 20ish chapters to go. What plot? Has turned into Maybe Plot?

Return of Shikaku is the next chapter _on Canon Naruto World_.

Also. That one reviewer who said I just add AN to make it longer. It's not about the size it's what you do with it…but you wouldn't know about it.

 _Hello, 911! I just murdered someone._

 **FW: TV Series Rec: Hannibal**. Mercy of Baal is the meaning of Hannibal. Since the series is officially over (still hoping another network picks it up) I decided to change my name in its honor. Keeping part of it with me. *weeps forever*

Please Review

~Mercy of Baal (Previously Fragile Wishes.)


	25. General Chapter 24

"They say time heals all wounds, but that presumes the source of the grief is finite"

\- Cassandra Clare

Song: Heal by Tom Odell

* * *

Don't Go Where I Can't Follow  
by: Mercy of Baal

* * *

 _Current Location: Naruto Canon, Uchiha Residence_

Shikaku is ready to tell them 'no, she isn't who she says she is' the minute he meets the farce _._ The two weeks he spent on the border transferring the duties to someone else had been enough time to remember over and over the night the Kyuubi had attacked. The way Shikako had gone quiet in terror, the way Yoshino had grieved, the days filled with funerals, the way Shikamaru reached for someone who wasn't there anymore. The memories cycled over and over.

He is angry now. Angry that someone dares come up with such story after many years of trying to bury the pain. His normally calm demeanor has taking a dark edge that makes the ninja avoid him. He has visions of dragging the bitch by the hair and taking her straight to Ibiki. He might even help along.

Tsunade, Kakashi, Inoichi, and he make their way to the Uchiha district where the travelers had been staying at. They hadn't been allowed to leave the district, but had been supplied with whatever they needed. Inoichi is grimacing and Shikako knows he is worried about him. The Yamanaka can probably read everything off his face and the man is worried. He had said it slowly to him back in the office

"The girl…she looks like a Nara" Half preparing him to what he would see. They seem to be humoring her for now. That means the girl's story is questionably believable. No Nara her age had been born and Shikamaru's cousins were years younger than him anyway. The blood tests done had revealed her as a sibling to Shikamaru, but blood tests weren't impossible to fake.

The girl is turning away from the lake and towards them as they go around the house and into the training field. Sasuke is off in the water practicing his Katas with a sword. Some seals are visible on his face and arms. He doesn't know much about seals, but he can tell they are weighting him down. The way his muscles are shaking as he swings the sword gives it away. Uzumaki is on the water too with the same seals, trying not to move at all, and he is already drenched in water. It's been a second.

The girl faces them completely and he can't help the way his heart clenches and the way his stomach drops. She smiles at him before she can help it and stops it from forming almost immediately. All the anger leaves his body at once, like a tsunami of emotions. The aftermath is a confusing wreck he can't identify. His throat closes and his eyes burn. On the outside his face is made out of stone.

And oh! Kami…she looks just like Shikako would have. He knows Nara features and the girl has them…and Yoshino's. It's there, right in front of him. Every ninja knows how to recognize features in order to make reports. The smallest of details can make a difference in a mission. The way she dresses is similar to Shikamaru and she has a pair of Nara earrings on. The hair, the eyes, the curled lashes, the form of the lips, the forehead, the hands, and the way she stands. She looks like she learned it from Yoshino and him. He takes everything in as fast as possible. It's one of the few times his brain has sharped this much and he can't quite process it. It's too good to be an act. He wants to believe it _so_ bad, and he halfway does already. He understands his friend's warning now.

She is studying him right back. Her eyes just like Shikamaru when he is playing shogi.

He hears a splash of water and Naruto cursing loudly and the spell is broken.

"Sasuke" She yells at the Uchiha boy in come hither voice. He doesn't even turn to look at the Uchiha, too involved in watching a copy of his dead daughter grown up.

Tsunade steps forwards looking hostile. She grabs Naruto by the arm as soon as he is at the edge of the lake and drags him towards the girl looking thunderous.

"Hey! What's the big idea!? Let-" she shakes the blonde a little and gestures to the girl angrily.

"Take it off, now!"

Her eyes widen in alarm. but she touches Naruto's arm dispelling the seal.

"You little idiot!" She shakes Naruto again and hits him on the head making him fall on his knees. His hands grabbing at his head. She hardly did any damage but the anger rolling off in waves is frightening. The girl makes an aborted movement to help him up but thinks better of it. Her expression is pure Yoshino.

"Never let anyone put seals on you! Haven't you learned anything!?"

Naruto looks guilty and he just knows what's coming "I asked her…" he looks scared admitting it but raises his chin taking the blame.

"You…"

He feels like he is watching the scene through a glass. He fears that if he makes his presence known it will disappear.

"-I told you so" They all turn towards the Uchiha who isn't even looking at them. His mannerisms annoying in the same way Kakashi's are. He is wiping the water off his sword like he isn't even in the conversation. "I told you so but you didn't listen, "oh Sasuke, It's just a weight seal"

Shikako dispels his seal in a lightening flash move that leaves the Uchiha unbalanced, making him stumble.

"I don't talk like that"

Naruto lets out a startled laugher, staring at the Uchiha like he has done something amazing. Kakashi just _stares_ , even though the usual orange book is in front of his face. Shikaku hasn't felt this off kilter for a long, long time.

The three people before him act like old friends. Part of their act is a sham to dispel rising tension. And fuck, is it working.

Kakashi stepts forward and gestures at the girl "Shikako Nara" and then to Shikaku "And our own Shikaku Nara". The jounin eye smiles like nothing is wrong, grating on his nerves. He would never imagine Kakashi taking the initiative like this. The man wants something. Shikaku looks at the maybe-Nara and does the only thing that will convince him. He pools the shadow at his feet, relaxed and free.

"Family is like a tree and life is like a shadow"

He knows the second her eyes turn considering instead of confused that she might just be who she says she is. Her shadow loses shape and pools at her feet too. She swallows nervously.

"The shadow is what we make of it, the tree is the real thing"

And it feels like the floor has been pulled under him. The grief returns in waves. She had lived. In some other world his baby girl had lived. They hadn't had to burry a tiny coffin.

"The Kyuubi" She says understanding immediately. She knows exactly how her counterpart died.

"Yes" He says surprised but at the same time a bit proud. A Nara through and through.

"I remember" she says looking far away now "The air was overwhelming. I couldn't move…couldn't breathe" her hands gives a miniscule tremble "I'm sorry". He tries to shake off the image of a terrified baby.

Lots of people had said that to him at the funeral, but the sympathies from her are the most heartfelt. The way her face shows a bit of terror, she does remember. At a couple of weeks old it happened and she remembers. Everyone seems taken aback.

He believes her. Undeniably now. Everyone seems to feel the shift and they are hyper aware. _What now?_

Naruto is looking between them like he is trying to figure something out. He sees the widening of his eyes. Shikako reaches out to grip his arm before the boy can bolt. His eyes are already watering and his breathing is hitched.

"I…Let me go" he says pulling away.

"It wasn't your fault, Naruto" she looks straight at the blond willing him to believe it. Sasuke is hovering now.

"But-" He started shaking and sniffling. He hadn't ever once seen the kid cry no matter how cruel he was treated. He can see now how attached he is to Shikako already. In only two weeks he has been won over completely. Shikaku can see how tenderly she treats him, like he is something precious. Knowing that he might be the reason she was dead here must be tremendous blow to him. He thinks about Shikamaru growing with someone like that.

"You were a baby and you had no control of what happened before or after. Your seal stopped the Kyuubi. You prevented more deaths. You didn't kill her. Understand?"

 _Her._

The blond starts crying now and she pulls him forward to an embrace. Naruto clings to her like she is her lifeline. The heart breaking sobs makes his throat tighten. She pulls him away from the audience and walks him into the trees still holding on to her. Shikaku almost wants to follow them. She isn't allowed to be out of his sight yet. Inoichi puts a hand on his shoulder in support.

Sasuke sighs and runs a hand through his hair "Tea?"

He gets a few incredulous looks that the Uchiha ignores. There is just something about wrong about seeing the usually grumpy boy looking like this is regular. He can almost see a shadow of Fugako over the boy.

Tsunade has a different demeanor now, seeing Naruto with Shikako was probably the reason. The Hokage loves the blond genin deeply and everyone can see it.

"Sure, Tea" Tsunade says dragging out the word with a scowl like she wants to drink alcohol until oblivion. She isn't the only one.

MNNMNNNNNMNMNMNMNMNNMN

 **I wrote this 08/12 lol. It couldn't be posted before that! It's been sitting here for almost a month.**

 **Hope it gave you the feels. – MOB**

Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing – Abraham L.

Shamelessly twisted this quote.

 **MNMNMNMNMNMNMNMNMNMNMNMMN**

 **(in which MOB checks out Reviews obsessively)**

MOB: I have a competitive edge

LH: Donahermurphy posted her own story. Did you read? it made me cry

MOB: I need like 20 of the first chapter. I wouldn't even mind losing to this fic…already lost lol

 _No seriously. Check it out. It's an AU. It reads like one of the Reincarnation Roulette. "In Which someone attempts to kidnap Shikamaru instead"_


	26. Chapter 25: Crossworlds-Songbird

Introduction:

Crossworlds-Songbird occurs when Shikako tries to stop the Uchiha Massacre and ends up being tortured by Danzo because he thinks she has a Kekkai Genkai to see the future. The ones who get switched are DOS Sasuke and DOS Shikamaru with their own counter parts. Maybe after the Chuunin Exams in Grass.

* * *

 **Crossworlds - Songbird  
** **By: ByeByeBriar**

* * *

Shikamaru blamed Team 7 for this. Or, to be precise, he blamed their god-forsaken luck that had caused him and Sasuke to end up in an alternate future. Sasuke pointed out that they had least ended up in Konoha so things weren't that bad. Shikamaru grudgingly agreed. This Konoha was at peace and willing to help them return to their world without subjecting them to T&I so things were going well.

Shikamaru and Sasuke weren't exactly surprised though when they were housed in a vacate apartment block far from the Nara and Uchiha compounds. Kakashi wanted to keep their other-world presence as quiet as possible so the official story was that they had somehow gotten de-aged.

Considering that Team 7's terrible luck seemed to be a constant across dimensions this wasn't that far fetched.

But there was no way that either of them could keep up the pretense if they ran into people who actually knew them, so they agreed to keep a low profile until this mess could be sorted out.

It helped them too. Adjusting to the fact that _Kakashi_ was Hokage, The Fourth Shinobi War had apparently come and gone, Konoha had been leveled at least once, and there were several friends' names had been carved onto the Memorial Stone took some getting use too. They weren't told much, but there are some things you just can't hide. It was easier to deal with in the apartment where they could pretend that Tsunade had ordered downtime and they weren't stuck in an alternate dimension.

At least for a week.

"Look, either you let me take a walk or I start practicing my fire ninjutsu inside." Sasuke said to this world's Ino. Shikamaru leaned against the doorway. He was also itching to get out. Sasuke, frankly, didn't know how to stay still and it was driving him up a wall. Getting some air would be good for both of them.

"There's a corner store three blocks down," Shikamaru said when Ino didn't look moved. "And we're out of vegetables."

"Fine, but only there and back." Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"Yes mother."

The trip hardly did anything but it gave them something to do. Having gotten what he wanted, Shikamaru stood outside waiting for Sasuke to finish up. Ino chatted with him while they ignored the curious looks from the villagers. It was nice. This might not have been _his_ Ino, but she was still good at filling in the silence.

The whole moment was broken in an instant when Sasuke came out of the store.

"I'm done." He said, distracting Ino long enough that a woman appears in front of them.

"Shika!" At first Shikamaru thinks it's a genjutsu. He can't feel any chakra from Shikako and while she does look older she's _off._

Then Ino swears and the woman in front of him goes entirely still.

"You're not Shika. Ino, what happened to Shika?!" The elder Nara brain starts moving a mile a minute. Pulling in points that he had considered illusions a second before.

Shikako is hiding her chakra signature. Like she use to do when they were kids.

She's not a ninja. She's wearing Nara civilian wear, there are no weapons on her, and no headband strapped to her arm.

Something is very wrong with her. She's gone from happy to hysterical in less than a minute. Even at her worst, Shikako has never been this volatile.

Konohamaru Body Flickers right beside this Shikako. He's clearly about to say something to the later when Ino snaps as she grabs Shikamaru.

"Get her out of here!" Konohamaru does so and that's a mistake. Ino doesn't have a hold on Sasuke, _Ino has been keeping him from Shikako_ , and Sasuke takes off at them. Shikamaru has Ino in his shadow-possession which this older version can break but it will cost her too much time. Instead of fighting him, she takes him after Sasuke.

They all end up at the Nara clan compound. Coming to a halt just outside of the main family house. Shikako is hyperventilating. One hand wrapped around Konohamaru to hold herself up and the other pulling out her hair.

"WHAT HAPPENED TO SHIKAMARU?!"

"We're from an alternate universe that somehow got swapped with your Sasuke and Shikamaru during a mission." Sasuke states. This Shikako goes still as Konohamaru's mouth drops. Ino groans.

"Konohamaru, get out and if you breath a word of this I _will make you regret it."_ The chunin is gone giving the four of them some privacy. Shikako starts twitching, her whole body trying to hold in laughter.

"It was a C-Rank wasn't it?" Neither dimension traveler like the way her emotions are flipping on a dime. Frankly, it's freaking them out but they are ninja and masters of faking calmness.

"Yes." Sasuke said with chagrin. Shikako has relaxed but Ino hasn't and Shikamaru finds that interesting. Not as interesting as trying to figure out what caused Shikako to become unhinged like this, but interesting.

"Do you have a Shikako?" She asks, brimming with curiosity.

"Yeah, she just made chunin." She smiles.

"She's a coward." This takes the both of them by surprise.

"Shikako is _not_ a coward." Sasuke clenching his hands into fists. How dare she say that?

Shikamaru sees something click in in her eyes. He struggles to figure out what is so obvious to her. She walks right up to Sasuke looking both sad and fond.

"Oh Sasuke, you are always so naïve." Both of them get thrown for another loop and Shikamaru finally decides to be direct.

"Shikako, what happened to you?" Both women freeze and then Shikako giggles. It's not a good sound. It's the noise someone makes when they nearly died and can only laugh at the absurdity of their survival. Shikako shouldn't be making that sound. Not when she's safe.

"She was kidnapped." Ino says tersely. The giggling stops with an almost audible snap and Shikako lunges for Ino. Shikamaru should have grabbed her into a Shadow Possession but he is slow. Slow with the knowledge that Shikako didn't snap, someone _broke his sister._

Her behavior suddenly makes perfect sense and Shikamaru wants to hurl. Is going to hurl because now he's taking a closer look _at_ Shikako instead of what she's doing and there are scars that appear to trail beneath her collar and sleeves. All too even spaced to be from a fight.

Sasuke isn't doing much better. He's filled with rage and last rage full Uchiha nearly destroyed the world.

"You can't tell them! You can't! Don't you dare Ino!" Shikako doesn't actually make contact with Ino as the later lays a paralysis genjutsu on her before her second step. Ino isn't acting like Shikako's a threat. She has her hands up and is carefully moving around Sasuke.

"I'm not going to tell them. I promised remember? Don't I keep my promises?"

"They can't know." Shikako insists, still trying to fight the genjutsu. "It will ruin _everything_."

"I know. I promise I'm not going to tell them about that. I swear it on the Yamanaka name."

"Shikako, tell us who did this to you." Sasuke bites out, ready to kill someone in both worlds. A look invades her face that Shikamaru has been worrying he would see on his twin since the Gelel mission.

"Never. NeverneverneverneverneverneverneverneverneverNEVERNEVERNENVERNEVernever." The word is repeated over and over as whatever sanity she had disappears. Ino drops the genjutsu and wraps Shikako in a hug.

"Hey, nobody is going to make you say anything okay? You don't have to say anything." Ino rubs her back soothingly as the word keeps coming. The jonin shoots both of them a look that says ' _get the fuck out of here'_ and they comply.

They obviously aren't helping and even though this isn't their Shikako they still feel like they have failed.

They return to the apartment for lack of a better option. Shikamaru goes into the bathroom and pukes.

Those scars were distinctive. _Someone lit his sister on fire. Someone sliced out sections of her. Someone hurt her until she went mad and then kept on hurting her._

Her civilian markings and Ino's approach to her means that Shikako was never a ninja. _Someone kidnapped Shikako when she was a little kid._

The damage to her mind is far too extensive to have been caused short term. _Shikako was taken and he was too late._

The chaos from Sasuke wrecking the living room and then moving onto the kitchen is almost a relief. He's leaking killing intent and punching through things like they butchered his dog. Shikamaru's ninja's senses are automatically drawn to it. Attempting to catalog the best way to avoid getting caught in the crossfire without his permission. It helps him to pull away the toilet and start planning.

Ino hid Shikako's state from him. While obviously he wasn't good at handling her, things could have gone so much better if he had known before seeing her. The only reason _not_ to inform him was if she believed whoever tortured 'kako was still a threat in his world. A big enough threat that he would get flatten when he tried to take them out preemptively.

Because it didn't matter if they hadn't done it, anyone who would do that to his sister was going to _burn._

The chakra surge from a Body Flicker, alerts Shikamaru's to Ino's arrival. That and the sudden lack of racket from the kitchen. He and Sasuke enter the living room at the same time. His alternate-future-self's teammate is leaning against the upturned couch.

"I'm sorry you had to see that."

" _Who?"_ Sasuke spits out. His little work out seeming to have only fanned his rage.

"You don't need to know."

"Bullshit!"

"Ino, please." Shikamaru is angry too, but rage doesn't work on Ino. He's hoping a softer approach will do the trick.

"No."

"People have already tried to kidnap her and she barely got away in time! _Who did that to he!r?"_ Ino straightens at that. Shikamaru hammers into the sign of weakness.

"She technically died during the escape, if Tsunade hadn't been around she would have." He can see Ino is thinking that the two kidnappings are related though both he and Sasuke know that it is extremely unlikely that the culprit in this world was Hidden Grass.

"How are we suppose to protect her if we don't know who to protect her from?"

"Are you really going to send us right back to the enemy with nothing?"

"I wouldn't say you have nothing."

"Incomplete information is even worse than no information at all." Shikamaru retorted.

"I'm not going to tell either of you. I swore on my life and name never to speak of it and I'm not going to break that oath." Ino had her hands on her hips and Shikamaru knew she wasn't going to budge. "The _only_ thing I'm going to say is that neither of you are anywhere close to powerful enough to deal with him. If you try, if you start poking around, Shikako's wellbeing won't be the only thing on the line. Everything you care about will be in danger. _Everything_."

"She found something out didn't she? Then he discovered that she knew it and decided to find out how." Her posture shifts and Shikamaru knew he hit the nail on the head. This might not be his Ino but she was still Ino. Still stubborn too.

Sasuke and Shikamaru go back and forth, trying to get her to cave but to no avail. Their words don't budge her and their position in this alternate world is too precarious to use anything else. Eventually she leaves. Sasuke turns to Shikamaru.

"Any idea who?"

"Several." The Nara sits down and forms a circle with his hands.

"There's someone in Konoha with control of the ANBU." Sasuke says quietly. This is new information. "Shikako and Naruto found out that he has been ordering missions without the Hokage's knowledge just before he left."

Really, Shikarmaru wants to find whatever deity doles out luck and punch it in the face for the hand it gave his twin.

"Is there anything else?" Sasuke bites his lip.

"…I learned that from Naruto. Shikako hasn't said a word about it." That causes Shikamaru to open his eyes. He doesn't want to believe, but he can see the thought passing through the Uchiha's head as well.

Their Shikako should have told him. She didn't have a reason _not_ to unless….unless, like people here, she was aware how far his influence spread and she was trying to keep them out of this man's clutches. Which means that Shikako knows who the threat is.

A part of him is wondering how on earth she figured this out.

The majority is demanding to know why she doesn't trust him. This is too big for her to handle alone. She should have come to him, let him know about the threat to their family, to Konoha.

 _Is this what's so important to you that you don't care if you die?_

"We will find out who." Shikamaru promises.

"And we'll turn him into ashes."

Some days, Shikamaru likes how Sasuke thinks.

(X)

"They don't know anything." Ino informs her as Shikako plops down the shogi pieces. The madwoman has calmed down since her interaction with the travelers. It's a relief. Sometimes Shikako can take days to sooth her out of a fit.

"She's lonely." Shikako says. "Lonely and scared. She will have to tell them soon."

"Probably." Ino _knows_ Shikako isn't a prophet, that that was just a trick to fool Danzo, but she's still almost always right about the things she speaks of. It's unnerving.

"I hope Sasuke doesn't hate her too much."

"He'll get over it. He likes you, her, a lot. He won't be able to stay mad since he's seen what would have happened if you tried." The board is set up and Ino makes the first move.

"He hates so passionately though." Tears are forming at the corners of Shikako's eyes as she thinks about the pain her other self is going to go through. Ino reaches over and gently wipes them away.

"Hey, things are going to be okay. Our Sasuke forgave Itachi, her's can definitely forgive you." The tears stop flowing and a smile forms.

"You are so kind. When will our's be back?"

"I don't know. We're making progress on deciphering the seal that brought them here but it's going to be awhile before we can try returning them."

"They will be back right?" Shikako's hands twitch with nervous energy.

"Of course."

"You should stay with them. Shikamaru will pull the answers out of the others."

"I'll try." Honestly, Ino isn't looking forward to being around them anymore. It was hard enough to keep Shikamaru in the dark to begin with and now the cat is out of the bag. "Don't go giving Konohamaru the slip anymore though."

"I only wanted to see Shika." Shikako said with a pout.

"You're going to have to wait. Shikamaru didn't teach you how to escape and evade so you could go ditching your guard."

"Fine. I will stay home." Shikako moves a piece on the board.

"Great." Ino moves her knight and wonders if the other Shikako is going to suffer the same fate as her's.

* * *

 **Slightly scary, isn't it? Please review guys. Ficlets of the premise about this switch can be found in the DOS forum, in the Recursive Fanfiction thread. If you want more, PM ByeByeBriar, not me.**

 **~Hallen**


	27. General Chapter 26

**Mother knows Best** **  
** **by: Lady Hallen**

* * *

 _Current Location: D.O.S. World, Nara House_

Yoshino knew something was wrong the moment Shikamaru entered the house.

His shoulders were slumped in defeat and his eyes were shadowed.

Her hands trembled in apprehension. _Something is wrong!_ Her mind yelled at her.

"Tadaima," he drawled out. For someone who had been listening to him since his first words, it sounded deliberate and forced.

"What's wrong?" she asked instead of greeting him. She stood up and abandoned the dishes waiting on the table.

He blinked at her and looked at the floor like it was the most interesting thing in the world. "Mom, there's been an accident. She's alive" At the horrified gasp she emitted, he added hurriedly, "'Kako is…they can't find her. She's not in enemy' hands. Just…displaced by transportation seals" She knew she wasn't being told the full story, but Shikamaru was probably already telling more than he was allowed. She tried to connect the information that Shikamaru was telling her. _What?_

Her breath whooshed out of her. She felt a little wobbly. It was always Shikako getting in trouble. Sometimes…sometimes she waited for news that…she shuddered. Too many close calls.

"When?" she whispered. She knew her daughter was in ANBU. It was one of those things you weren't supposed to know. As far as everyone knew, Shikako had started taking long term missions.

Her daughter had been more secretive about what seals she was building since the fiasco with the hospital. There had been little hope that Shikako would not be sent to dismantle dangerous seals.

He looked up, meeting her eyes. She flinched.

"Just…six days ago," he murmured.

The investigation was probably on the way then. Her eyes narrowed. If the investigation was on the way and it involved Shikako, there was no way Shikaku didn't know. And the ass hadn't told her. (Though it explained why he had hugged her extra hard a few days ago.)

"What have they discovered?" she asked, bringing both of them to the sofa. She was trying not to cry.

"Just seals. Dad's already sent for Jiraiya sama,"

She wound her arms around him, as much for her comfort as for his. He didn't ask for hugs, he wasn't one for them, but sometimes he sought her out. Particularly after a fight with his sister. Thankfully those days of constant stress were over…mostly. The fact that Shikako had earned her Jounin rank first had alleviated some of the worries Shikamaru had. _Some_.

"It's going to be alright Shika" she murmured.

He slumped more as he melted into her embrace.

Yoshino still remembered when they were younger. Shikako toddling after her brother, barely leaving his side and Shikamaru walking slowly so that she could catch up, until she was the one pulling him. She was so shy in those days, always cringing in her brother's shadow. The twins didn't talk to each other a lot, but they found comfort in each other's presence.

Yoshino remembered finding both of them in one bed together, little torsos bumping against each other in comfort whenever she woke them up by ripping away the blankets. She remembered sending them to school, Shikako's hands inevitably winding up in her brother's shirt or in his hand.

Then a more recent memory, of Shikako actually surprising her brother with a win in shogi and her laughing as she tackled him with a hug of victory, ignoring his complaints. The fact that he had been thoroughly distracted by Ino did not mute her celebration.

"Mom, Sasuke is staying at the clan house for a while" he said, not happily. Shikamaru did not sound annoyed like when he talked about Sasuke sometimes, but apprehensive.

Yoshino was confused. He was saying it like it was something to be noted. Sasuke didn't like being in someone's debt, but he did enjoy staying over.

"Of course, it's alright," she said, even though she didn't understand why he had to stay at their house. She would think Sasuke would rather be at his house with Naruto.

Shikamaru slouched. "Not like that. Sasuke was involved in the accident. He's confused and he has been lashing out. He has chakra restricting seals on him, but he isn't safe."

.. _Oh!_

"We'll watch over him properly," she managed. She liked Sasuke and worried for him constantly too. "When Shikako gets back, she would be very angry if he's hurt." She didn't ask what they planned to do about Sasuke. Why wasn't he with Tsunade if he was sick?

There was always a reason for keeping things quiet. Sometimes she hated that their lives were so secretive. She got the message though. This was supposed to remain quiet, and it wasn't like everyone didn't know Orochimaru had an interest in Sasuke. An incapacitated Uchiha was too attractive a target.

"Tadaima," Shikaku announced as he entered the house. Yoshino's eyes flashed with irritation. Shikaku had waited until Shikamaru was done talking to her. He had sent him to do the dirty work. That just wouldn't do.

* * *

 **I think we need to explain the previous chapter and what this fic is _really_ all about.**

 **For those who read chapter one, hooray! Skip this AN and review or something, you already know all about this. For those who skipped chapter one, let me elucidate.**

 **This fic is a storage place for the Switch fics for the DOS verse, an extension of FORUM ideas from DOS, Recursive Fanfiction thread. For those who disparaged chapter one for just adding word count, hello, that thing actually helps the navigation and explain it to those having a confusing time.**

 **The main SWITCH idea for this fic is the one in the summary. The sudden shifting ones we call crossworlds are those DOS AU's that got explored in the Forum Thread.**

 **Now, I'm not the only one working on this thing. So far, three more authors have contributed. (You'll know if you read chapter titles properly too. Like, 'Title' by [blank])You'll have known that if you read chapter one. The chances of this thing ' _losing'_ momentum or something, is very little. We egg each other in the forums.**

 **This fic is for DOS fans who enjoy reading about different AU's that could happen in DOS.**

 **~Hallen**


	28. General Chapter 27

Sasuke being grumpy, a worried Yoshino, and Roots moving up

Current Location: DOS-verse, Konoha

* * *

The Root of All Evil

By: Mercy of Baal

A henged Sasuke walked silently along the grown up Shikamaru. He could feel the chakra surrounding his body, but could not affect it. He was starting to hate this Shikako everyone talked about. The seals on his body wouldn't go away no matter what he tried.

They were also in apparently no hurry to get to the Nara compound. Sasuke felt like his skin itch with annoyance. Shikamaru might as well have not been moving at all at the pace he was going. When he had decided to leave Konoha, this wasn't what he had in mind. He had ended up in another Konoha with the same weak-willed individuals- just older.

They ran into a few people who gave them weird looks but otherwise ignored them. That was ninja for you.

They arrived at the compound and a woman came out. It had to be Shikamaru's mother. She had been waiting for them, obviously.

"Hello, Sasuke."

The woman's eyes moved up and down his body as if checking for injuries. He knew, that she didn't know who he really was. He had been on the other side of worried looks before (and often), but it had been a while since he had gotten worried maternal looks. The same kind of eyes that his mother would have made at Itachi.

The woman ignored that he didn't answer and smiled worriedly, but genuinely anyway.

"I made riceballs, if you're hungry."

Given that he had been forced to eat Ramen again by the idiot, and that before that he had been eating energy bars, it didn't sound so bad. He didn't say anything. The woman just smiled and went into the house. Shikamaru gave him a warning look.

He got hit with the reality that this was someone's life just as he was toeing off his sandals. He couldn't deny that everything was too detailed for a genjutsu. There was a Sasuke out there who had been part of this. That came to this house often enough that the woman worried for him (that would cook his favorite food). He thought about leaving. Managing to escape Konoha and…then what? Kill Itachi. That had been his goal for a years.

The Uchiha clan had been massacred in this world too. Would killing this Itachi fulfill his vengeance? He fisted his hands. No. This Itachi was also a murderer, but he hadn't killed _his_ mother. That had been another woman, not the one who had given birth to him.

The seal around his chest started stinging as the Nara moved farther away. Shikamaru signaled for him to follow. He wanted the seals off and to kill Shikamaru. He had been warned that distance would activate it whenever it was active. He hadn't thought that it would get irritating this quickly. He felt the stinging fade away as the distance restriction was deactivated. He wanted to rub the feeling off his chest, but he wouldn't show any weakness.

After dinner he was showed to the room assigned to him as long as he 'was good'. He sat on the bed and stared at his hands. He didn't know what to do. Didn't know what to do with the information that seemed to come from every side. He scowled. The other Sasuke wasn't an avenger, he was a weakling that had forgotten about his promise.

He laid down on the bed and stared at the ceiling seething, until he saw something. He stood up and stretched to get the paper from the ceiling light. It had been purposely put there so that only when someone laid on the bed was it visible.

 _Be ready._

The message slurred until the ink fell in drops into his hand, staining it with black. The message hadn't been signed, but it was clear. Be ready to escape.

Everyone seemed positive that the woman and his counterpart would return. Even without the chakra, he could feel the power thrumming beneath his veins. This is what he needed to kill Itachi. If he escaped he would keep the body, and if he did, his revenge was not a possibility. .

Would he? Would he take the chance to escape if it was given to him? _Yes._ He would. If he would get rid of the seals and then he would show them just who he was.

* * *

I'm sorry that it's very short given the time it took to put it up. But like I said. Real life has been kicking my ass. I have been getting home at midnight for the past days. I started my internship and job. I also moved to a new place. I haven't been having much computer time. Classes too. I finally finished moving so I have more free time.

Anyway. Who wants to hear about that? No one. And oohhhh. Root is trying to make a comeback in this world….

What do you guys think? Please review. I live for them :P


	29. General Chapter 28

13 Years of Grief

By: Mercy of Baal

Current Location: Naruto Canon

Yoshino stares at the sink, her hands damp from washing dishes almost aggressively. _She'll_ be here any minute and Yoshino can't sit still. Oh, she knows that Shikaku debated on whether to tell her about her at all, but this isn't only his choice. What she doesn't know is how the Hokage was convinced to let more people know about the travelers. Shikaku must have pulled something off.

She's nervous and she can't hide it from Shikamaru who sits on the table playing with a Shogi piece. Inoichi had come to talk to her. She hasn't talked to him about Shikako in years (hasn't had to resort to talking to Inoichi for a long time).

She breathes in and tries to stop her hands from shaking. The image of a tiny baby on her arms plays over and over in her head. Her head snaps from the sink to the door and she sees Shikamaru do the same. The sound of the steps and door hard been deliberate. Shikaku steps in and _stares_ at her. Behind him is a young woman.

A Nara. Her face is serious but she can see the way her eyes look at the room (the way she recognizes and dismisses everything). Her hair is in a long braid, she wears a Jounin vest and a long coat over that. The rest is something else. The girl doesn't slouch or drag her feet. Her head is high and she walks assuredly. _Shikako_ looks back at her, and her lips turn down a little and her face goes soft.

 _I am going to meet her, Shikaku._

She wonders if this was the correct decision.

Shikaku is still staring at her. The image of a baby comes into her head and she puts walls up on reflex. This isn't her daughter. This grown woman is someone else. This.

* * *

Shikako stares at her mother's counterpart. . Yoshino Nara looks the same as her mother does. The only real difference is that this one has slight crow's feet in the corner of her eyes. She looks devastated, and for a second she considers stepping forward and hugging her. Shikako cant help it, it is something she would have done for her mother.

 _Except_

Except that her heart drops to her stomach when Yoshino calmly starts walking away towards her bedroom. Shikako swallows back the lump in her throat. She understands but at the same time she can't help but feel crushing guilt.

Shikaku squeezes Shikamaru's shoulder as he goes by and follows after Yoshino.

Shikako clears her throat and stares at Shikamaru, and he stares back.

"I thought you would look like me"

She stands still for a second before walking towards the table "I got better genes"

Shikamaru's lip twitches and starts setting up the board. She doesn't miss the way his hand trembles before he hides it professionally.

* * *

Shikaku enters his bedroom to find Yoshino staring at Shikako's baby picture. His eyes tear up and he blinks it away. He sits beside her and stares at it with her.

"She would have looked like that?" She asks softly running her finger down the small cheek immortalized in the paper.

"Yes" He says simply. He takes her hand in his and squeezes. It feels like those days after the funeral. Uncurling sadness, anger, stress, and pain.

"She isn't her" She says grabbing the onesie from the box and bringing it to her chest.

"No" he says "She isn't, Yoshino" He say and brings an arm around her. .

"I know it isn't her! Alright. I know" She says to him as she squeezes the piece of cloth. It offers little comfort.

He just holds her while she breathes in the imagined smell of baby.

"Shikako was buried 13 years ago" she says, her voice breaking. She finally leans into him after a few seconds "I am going to go insane Shikaku"

"You don't have to see her again" The _it's fine if you don't_ is there. She knows he would support whatever decision she made.

"I think I want to" She says after a few minutes of listening to the undecipherable murmurs from the kitchen.

* * *

MOB AN:

Sorry about the delay. This was a hard chapter to write… At least SQ has been awesome about her updates, right? xD

Anyway. Time to throw Lady under the bus. This conversation happened a few days before the chapter on Sasuke with earrings came out (what a coincidence!)

I said that Shikako should leave something for Naruto as a gift. I said her earrings because that would mean something for the Nara family. That Naruto would have support from them from then on (A double parting gift or a sort)

 _Lady said that they were_ _ **Nara**_ _earrings and that wouldn't be right._

Well, I'd like to say…I told you so! Hahaha am I being annoying lady?

*hallen points to M.O.B.*

I do not know this creature. She does this to me every time and I dread every chapter AN.


	30. General Chapter 29

**Warning: Angst & sneaky height jokes. Yoshino has a mood whiplash. Shikamaru is a sneaky little shit. Ninjas being ninjas. **

**A Thousand Unspoken Things  
by: Lady Hallen**

* * *

Shikaku doesn't interrupt them.

He knows that he knows she could probably sense him - ANBU training sessions are no joke – but he makes no move to reveal himself. Just as well, he thinks. Shikamaru's eyes glint with something hard but brittle.

The game that progresses across the board is unaffected by the slightly stiff atmosphere. If he were assessing this from an outsider's perspective, it would be easy to jump to the wrong conclusions.

"This world isn't so different," Shikako remarks, probably answering an unspoken question she saw in her brothers eyes.

Shikaku sees his son twitch. "Ah," the boy manages. "Really?"

She nods, braid swaying. "You're still Shikamaru and dad it still _dad_."

Hanging in the air are the things that are different, he thinks.

The Uchiha that is an ANBU. The apparent alliance with Sand (if the ANBU reports are to be believed about her meeting with Gaara of the Sand). Her existence.

Shikako knows of course. The smile she lets out is fond and exasperated at once. She sighs, "Ninjas.". _Ninjas are still ninjas._ He understands that concept.

Shikaku is pulled away by Yoshino pressing a tray of snacks into his side.

"Go on," she prompts him. "Stop hovering."

If it was any other situation, he would have rolled his eyes at her. As it was, he just quirks a smile at her, grateful for the excuse to intrude.

He had talked to her, in the mausoleum that was the Uchiha compound, but it was even more charged, awkward and stiff than this meeting. Mostly because the Hokage was there watching everything, along with the former Head of T&I and the Copy-nin Kakashi.

"Snacks," he announces as he tries not to see the painful longing on Yoshino's face behind him. Her control wasn't good enough, she told him. So she would watch. And presumably drive herself up the wall, he concludes, for being excluded.

"Thanks," she tells him, a quick flash of a smile that has him taking a breath because he is reminded, so abruptly, of a younger Yoshino except this one has his eyes.

"How's it going?" he asks, even if he can discern the answer himself by just analyzing the board.

Shikamaru furrows his brows. "She's winning," he mutters. It should have sounded sullen, but he looks positively delighted at the prospect of a challenge.

"Not quite," she says at the same time Shikaku does, making them both exchange a quick look. He continues at her nod. "See here," he points out.

The stiff atmosphere relaxes at that point, and really they're all Naras. It's all about shogi for them. The tea is consumed slowly and steadily. He wants to ask her a dozen questions, or more like, five dozen of it, but they have time. Rushing into things won't help anyone.

He knows she trusts him just because of who he is in her world, but she's still a kunoichi and being wary is practically bred into them.

"Did it hurt?" Shikamaru says unexpectedly, breaking the silence.

Shikako looks startled. "I – what?"

"Your hand," he clarifies, gesturing to the white scar in the middle of her hand. It's obviously healed but the scar is wide and eye-catching as she moves pieces across the board.

Shikako pauses, looking down at her hand. "Oh, this old thing," she murmurs. "It burned."

There is only one recent mission in Shikaku's memory where she could have gotten an injury like that and its one his mind immediately jumps to. Because shinobi are careful with their hands and her wound is obviously not pierced by her own bones. Shikamaru obviously reaches the same conclusion.

"You got involved in that mission, then?" Shikamaru asks.

She shrugs, trying obviously for nonchalance but smiling with bemusement anyway. "It went down differently, if Naruto's tales are true," she answers. "But yes, I was part of it. Sasuke was my teammate anyway and Tsunade-sama gave me and Shika instructions to pick our team. He would have wasted more time trying to convince me not to get involved, which he knew."

Something niggles with him at that statement but he remains silent, willing to wait it out.

"Went differently?" he queries.

She shook her head. "Ibiki-taichou still tells me to moderate things."

 _Ibiki?_ Shikaku ponders. The long jacket and the diversions start making sense then.

* * *

Yoshino eventually composes herself, serving up dinner without even flinching at her alternate daughter's quicksilver smile and murmured thanks.

"Will Uchiha-san be fine, with you eating ahead of him?" Shikaku asks, and that is something to be concerned about. She knows experienced Jounin who are only capable of campfire cooking and heating up leftovers. Some not even that.

Shikako smirks. "Oh, he'll be fine. He can cook better than me," she says. Added softly so that only those paying attention could catch it, she says, "Provided he could find a stool to reach over the counter."

Shikamaru chokes on a mouthful and Yoshino finds herself grinning. It is still difficult to meet her eyes but at the same time, it's she couldn't not.

"You're close then?" she asks, unable to help it.

Shikako's eyes sparkle with mischief. "It's very difficult to swoon over him like Sakura and Ino do," she says. "After you've run a few missions with him. He's not exactly a morning person and ..."

She entertains them with funny stories that her team did in their missions and she quickly has them laughing. It's obvious that she treats him like family, like a brother. She could see the envy in Shikamaru's eyes, as well as the warring regret and relief in her husband.

Their little girl grew up and she was happy.

 _Could have been happy._

In a rush, Yoshino sucks in a lungful of air and scrambles for her glass of water to try and suppress the rising force of tears.

 _She would have been so beautiful and happy._

Shikaku's eyes meet hers and he squeezes her hand under the table. His hands are strong and calloused. It brings her back to the meal and she continues eating. Her chopsticks tremble and it is an exercise of will to continue acting unaffected.

The laughter is gone though. Shikako looks concerned but knows enough not to push it, concentrating on her food diligently, though there is a flash of eyes behind her bangs.

And then everything is done and Yoshino can't stop herself from holding her wrist.

"Shikako," she says and she's really pushing it, but she can't help it. "You can invite Uchiha-san here next time."

The young woman her little would have grown up to looks startled, but she smiles and it feels like a dozen senbon lodging itself in her spine. It is a smile that's fond and knowing, kind and very familiar.

"Okay," Shikako agrees. "Sasuke would like that" mischief flashes again "He cooks with mom sometimes even though he pretends to not like it."

A section of her lungs feels collapsed, it is honestly hard to breath. Shikaku is as firm and unyielding as a mountain on her back. It is comforting and it is the only reason why she hasn't burst into tears yet.

"Thanks for the meal," she tells them her face turning to the window when there is a small tap on it and between one blink and another, she's gone.

Yoshino feels like she should laugh, or hit something. Instead, she does neither and just sags against Shikaku.

* * *

 **Yes, I sneaked in a Height joke. (** hehehe no one can resist making fun on DOS Sasuke –MOB)

 **I don't think Shikako is ever going to let Sasuke forget this once they get back to their world.**

 **So, did I make anyone cry? Yes? Good, I did my job then!**

 **~Hallen.**

 **MOB: Lady wrote another sex scene. I told her it was good.**

 **Lady: Now you can stop ragging at me about that** _ **other**_ **unsuccessful sex scene I wrote?**

 **MOB: NEVER!**

 **Happy 500 and 600 to us! We have 18 communities too :].**


	31. General Chapter 30

Stressed Out  
Written by: Lady Hallen and edited by: Mercy of Baal

* * *

It was a testament to how much of a bastard Kakashi could get that Sasuke didn't even flinch when the Jounin suddenly spoke beside him.

"Good afternoon!" he said with that annoying tone that made people want to punch him. What made it more grating was that everyone knew they wouldn't be able to land a single hit.

"Hn," he managed, suppressing the urge to try anyway. That never ended well.

"Since Shikako-san is with the Naras today" Kakashi continued, tone not even apologetic, the bastard "I have been told to babysit you".

Almost as though to punctuate the statement, Naruto' voice could be heard yelling unnecessarily as he arrived beside them.

"Kakashi-Sensei!" He shouted "what the hell, give me back my jacket! - Oh Nice-Sasuke-teme. Where is Shikako-chan?"

Sasuke wanted to groan, as he watched Kakashi keep the jacket away from the blond just by holding it up.

"Is this your idea of watching me?" He said pointedly. He knew why Naruto was here. Their damn sensei ( _not ours_ , he reminded himself) was trying to foist his student on him. He was about to stand up and go inside when Kakashi put his hands up, patting the air.

"Maa, maa," He placated "It's alright Sasuke. Naruto will learn a lot from you".

Doing two jobs at once…and the bastard didn't even have to do anything. Except watch. He knew that Kakashi would be getting all the information he could get, even from this. There were ways to know how a person was faring, and one of them was through spars. Sasuke would know, Shikako mastered that kind of intel-gathering almost to an art from.

With a sigh, Sasuke placed away the scroll he was studying and stood up. Naruto would not leave him alone now that he knew Sasuke would train him.

The entire way to the training grounds, Naruto tried to be subtle and sent speaking looks of worry to Sasuke…who usually was not reluctant to train him. It was annoying and a bit irritating to be on the side of those looks. Because if there was one person who never treated him like glass, and that was Naruto. _His Naruto_ , who was more likely to smack him than show worry.

They arrived to the training ground, before Naruto could stick his nose into his business.

"Taijutsu only," Kakashi said dropping his hand between them, before retreating to a tree, hiding behind his usual orange book. Sasuke flew forward, not letting Chibi-Naruto gather his thoughts. He worked better that way. Shikako's training of _Naruto_ in tactics had only made the blonde's off the fly thinking more unpredictable. This Naruto did not have the years of training the other one did, or Shikako's hand in training.

And he can see it- now every game of shogi, every tag or other type of game invented to help Naruto is under new light. Even as young as she had been….

Still, Sasuke was forcibly reminded hours later of why he hates sparring with Naruto in taijutsu only, and that was because of the blond's nearly inhuman endurance and stamina.

With a kick that's in part because of irritation and another part vindictive- because he never pretended to be the forgiving sort- he threw Naruto into a tree.

"Dammit teme," Naruto complained, but still getting up "do you have to kick that hard?"

Sasuke allowed a smirk to form in his mouth "No, but I wanted to." He said.

With a growl that was wonderful to hear, Naruto launched himself back into the fight, form a bit more wild. He activated his Sharingan, after Naruto landed a good punch when using a clone attack. If he wants to cheat…

Naruto smirked and made a familiar cross hand seal.

Sasuke reached into his pouch for Shuriken, wire, and some tags. Brat.

Suddenly Kakashi is there and Sasuke can't do anything but react. He is low on chakra after sparring for that many hours. But as hell he won't let Kakashi grind him into the floor. This is ten more times stress relieving than hours against Naruto. He's been on edge ever since landing into this world, and this is a sudden out.

* * *

Shikako blinked at the scene. If she allowed it, it would almost feel like she was back at home. Her sensei trying to pummel Naruto and Sasuke into the floor. After the emotionally charged dinner she had just experienced though, she wasn't in the mood to humor them.

It had been trying and difficult to even swallow anything, faced with her mother's burning curiosity and grief and her father's penetrating gaze. _Not my parents._

"What," She said flatly "are the three of you doing?"

It was a question, despite how she said it. Naruto was yowling, Sasuke's elbow digging into his stomach. Kakashi's hand about to pull the Uchiha away and into the tree.

"They started it" said Kakashi, nose in the air before throwing Sasuke to said tree. "They ruined my book." He said despairingly. The orange book was an unrecognizable black burned book now, courtesy of Sasuke.

"A bubbling feeling started clinging up on her chest. Shikako started laughing. _Oh, Sasuke!_ That must have taken quite a bit of manipulation and luck. She knew what _that_ was payback for. Even if it had been taken out on the wrong person.

Kakashi-sensei looked inches away from frying all of them with a fire jutsu. Shikako kept laughing even though her entire body warned her from it. After a stressful day, seeing her team acting exactly the same was like a soothing balm to her raw soul.

"You three are ridiculous" She said trying to stop laughing as she went into the house. It was either that or start crying.

* * *

 **Merry Christmas.**

 **Wrote this a month or so ago, and left it stewing with co-author (coz she was busy with Uni).**

 **Yeah….so it isn't angst. Like I said, Merry Christmas. Even DOS Switch needs a break sometimes.**

 **(HINT: Reviews are awesome Christmas presents.)**

 **Love,**

 **~Hallen and Mercy of Baal**


	32. General Chapter 31

**Age Regression  
** by: Lady Hallen

* * *

It was exactly like babysitting, Shikamaru told himself.

Sasuke's face was set on a permanent frown and it was like he'd forgotten how to smile, or change his expressions into something more pleasant. Shikamaru wouldn't really say that Sasuke was a friend, but he was Shikako's and these days, he couldn't visit his sister's apartment without tripping over him or Naruto.

He had walked in on the three of them in various stages of the awkward and the hilarious – one memorable moment had Naruto with black hair and Sasuke with blonde, Shikako on the floor between them, howling with laughter. It was impossible to take the three of them seriously after that.

But watching over this Sasuke was like watching over the evil twin.

They looked exactly alike but the way this one moved, how he didn't _look_ at anyone with respect, grated on Shikamaru's nerves.

Thus, they were in the training grounds and he'd recruited Naruto for babysitting duties, just so that he could step away from the temptation of pummeling the asshole to the ground. Until he stopped wearing _their_ Sasuke's face like that. It wasn't exactly a feasible solution, given that it was only a spiritual exchange, according to Jiraiya.

"Just one Kage Bunshin, Naruto," Shikamaru called out. "He's just a genin."

Naruto pouted at him but complied. "No chakra either?" he clarified, eyes skimming the black seals that crawled up and over pale skin.

Shikamaru nodded and there were two Naruto's side by side in a puff of chakra smoke. He shook his head wryly. Naruto had done that with no hand seals. Most surprising ninja indeed.

Sasuke attacked first, clearly looking to let out steam. That was alright, Naruto could take it.

He watched everything closely. How Sasuke moved three fractions slower than usual, how his moves were sharp and punctuated with temper. How his teeth were bared in anger and frustration. How his eyes were pinched with pain, probably unconsciously channeling chakra to his eyes and paying for it when the seals reacted.

"Stop," he said and they did, Naruto quickly and Sasuke with a grunt of irritation. "You need to stop trying to use chakra. You tried to activate your Sharingan, didn't you?"

Sasuke didn't meet his eyes and Shikamaru sighed.

"So no sparring," Naruto said, voicing out what Shikamaru was thinking. Everything was instinctive for this Sasuke. He had no control at all. Genin.

"No sparring," he agreed. "Shogi?"

Naruto obliged and produced the required clones. Sasuke's frustration was even more evident as they played.

"Do you know the rules?" he had to ask at one point and Sasuke answered yes, along with a look that added, _you idiot_.

"Why are we playing this?" Sasuke bit out between clenched teeth.

Shikamaru wanted to groan. His sister had such troublesome friends. "What do you see, as the game goes on then?"

"The dead last keeps losing to you?" Sasuke mutters. "Nothing new there. He's always been an idiot. I wonder who bothered to teach him this game."

By the look on Naruto's face, he wasn't the only one struggling to keep his temper. No, scratch that. He really was the only one. Naruto started yelling and Shikamaru tried to tune it out, lest he give in to the urge and strangle the brat with Shadow Stitching Jutsu.

"Why don't you play against him then?" Shikamaru said loudly, interrupting Naruto's rant. "If you're so confident. It doesn't need your chakra."

Sasuke's scowl deepened at that suggestion and only grew worse as the game progressed. As it should. Naruto might not have been a genius, but he had been playing with Shikako for four years now and some of her tactics had rubbed off on him.

Shikamaru could see it in the way Naruto targeted weak spots and directed his pieces. Sasuke lost in six moves and he didn't even know it.

"You've lost," he told him. "Can you see it?"

There was a muscle jumping in Sasuke's jaw. "Where?" he said. "What …" he trailed off and Shikamaru knew he'd seen it. "How did that happen?"

So Shikamaru settled down and his second most favorite thing to do right next to cloud watching and shogi - analyzing shogi games.

"You started off aggressive and that's the wrong thing to do with a player like Naruto," he explained patiently. He did this before, with one of the kunoichi in his sisters group. One of her many side projects.

 _(He ached a little, thinking of Shikako. Busy Shikako who had too many things going on but still had time for him.)_

"A ninja's greatest tool is his mind," Shikamaru reiterated the lesson firmly. "Shogi is a game of tactics and strategy. How many applications can you think about?"

Sasuke scowled again and Shikamaru gave in to the urge and poked his cheek, making him startle.

"Don't keep frowning," he muttered. "Watch me fight Naruto and learn from it."

He didn't know that volunteering to babysit an alternate dimension's Sasuke included teaching. He just _knew_ Hokage-sama was watching and would get ideas.

Their fight was short and to the point. Without chakra, it ended quickly, most of his techniques needed chakra anyway. He didn't try to drag out the fight. Naruto had insane endurance and stamina. He'd often heard Shikako mutter about it under her breath. He used simple tricks to push the blonde to the tree, where he'd seen a trap left from a genin practicing earlier.

With a startled yell, Naruto flew up and dangled.

"One step ahead of everything," he told Sasuke. "Do you understand now?"

Sasuke's eyes were wide. It glimmered with the light of understanding. Shikamaru resisted the urge to sigh in relief. Finally.

"Neh, Shikamaru!" Naruto whined.

An annoyed look had the blonde cutting himself loose, a sheepish look on his face. "Alright, alright. But we can have ramen for lunch, right? I mean, your mom's bento's are awesome, but ramen…"

With another sigh, Shikamaru allowed Naruto to drag him and Sasuke to Ichiraku's. The seals glimmered again in sunk deep into skin, leaving no sign of it anywhere. Shikako's work was beautiful and deadly efficient. Sasuke's scowl was back again, and Shikamaru wanted to groan.

 **So, I asked Mercy of Baal for an AN...**

 **She said: Post it now and crush everyone's soul by making them think it's a DOS update.**

 **...**

 **You can sorta see where the inspiration of this thing comes from, with encouragement like that.**

 **Please Review! (My b-day passed without an update for Switch - coz I was busy updating for the other fics, so a review for a b-day gift would be awesome.)**

 **~Hallen**


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